Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Mark Gatiss, Nicholas Farrell, James Backway, Angelina Chudi, Joni Ayton-Kent, Zak Ford-Williams, Aoife Gaston, Edward Harrison, Sarah Ridgeway, Joe Shire, Christopher Godwin.
We must put the time of year into perspective, we must understand the reasons, or even accept that there are none in which seem logical, that Christmas as a holiday has become one of division and brimming with its own sense of dogma.
We have moved so far on from the moment that one of the undisputed masters of the English Language turned his eye, arguably out of a sense of desperation himself, to the question of Christmas, to how the rich look upon the poor in such a manner that even in time of compassion in the name of their lord, they still find it in their heart to be anything but charitable and open handed. However, charity is such that it has itself lost its meaning in the 21st Century, it is tied up with millionaires and billionaires decrying that the poor are so feckless that they require help to cook their hard earned dinner, and that electricity and heat, warmth, light, the means to cook a meal, the belief that a child should be safe and dry are privileges, not rights to which we should all have.
Mark Gatiss’ adaption of Dickens’ festive hit, A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story is perhaps one of the most enlightening to come to the stage, and by happy fortune, to television in many years. An adaption that does not glide happily into mawkish hangover, a play that creates friction and elbows the ribs of humour where it is needed, but one that does shy away from the fact that there are those to whom the time of year is a trial, the ghosts are real, and that sometimes they don’t come for vengeance, but to ease the troubled minds.
It may not seem it on the surface, for everybody wants to imagine Scrooge being worn down without pity, without shame, until he is broken and renewed, and yet there is more to his salvation than just drowning in anger and fierce demands on others being eradicated, it is the memory of once was that offers compassion. In a time when it is easy for the loud of voice to call upon the world to drag a name through the mire and leave them to pastures uncertain, it takes true strength to show what can be achieved to change a person’s soul by simply showing a moment of kindness.
A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story benefits from some sterling theatrical presence, not least the ever-superb Nicholas Farrell in domineering form as Scrooge, Zak Ford-Williams as young Marley and Tiny Tim, and Christopher Godwin as The Narrator and who adds subtly in the text and the reveal. Most of all though it should be to the director, the player of many parts, not least the exposure of Jacob Marley’s frightful damnation and to which puts in mind the exquisite portrayal donned by the late Alec Guinness in the 1970 film Scrooge.
Such is the heart of this play that to have it opened up for the television viewer is a triumph, a sincere and resplendent adaption that empathy and benevolence that can be found within is a lesson perhaps to those who seek to damn others without the possibility of offering them hope.
Ian D. Hall