Photo by Mark HamiltonYour presence is requested at the offices of Messrs Scrooge and Marley... Read more …
The National Theatre of Scotland’s version of Charles Dickens’ classic fable is an exquisite take on one of our most famous winter tales.
Only 90 audience members per show join Ebenezer Scrooge in his Victorian counting house and sit in creepy close-up as this most famous of misers is visited by three ghosts during his night of soul-searching.
Other-worldly puppets, top-rank Scottish actors and some of the most beautiful words ever written in the English language combine to make this intimate Christmas Carol heart-rending and heart-warming in equal measure.
If Gavin Glover’s puppet creations interpret Dickens’s imaginings with clever twists of his own devising, the cast supporting Young’s Scrooge handle the puppets with characterful finesse.
It is brilliantly done.
In order to justify adding yet another show to Scottish theatre’s ample Christmas fare, the NTS was always going to have to come up with something special. With McLaren’s faithful, yet audacious, retelling of Dickens’s timeless tale, it has done so abundantly.
Tremendous.
Remarkable.
Dickens' festive spook story is given a compelling and creepy outing by Graham McLaren.
For all its brillint invention, the NTS show finally transmits less of the great spirit of Dickens than the sentimental old touring version of Scrooge, seen in Glasgow last week; and tells his story with less clarity and conviction.
The National Theatre of Scotland's staging of A Christmas Carol
The Old Kirk, Kirkcaldy from Friday December 7, 2012, until Sunday December 30, 2012.
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