Panto-tinged liberties have been taken by the astutely subversive duo of Dave Anderson and David MacLennan: cross-dressing didn’t character the original fiction, but who could resist framing Andy Gray’s face with ringlets and a mob cap as he goes for broke in the role (and ample bosoms) of Mrs Cratchit?
Even so, the socially conscious spirit of Dickens’s story is not traduced in a version that finds Scrooge gleefully profiting from the debts of the poor as they put themselves into hock for a ding-dong merrily on hire-purchase Christmas.
Anderson acts the brandy-quaffing Scrooge with fulsome aplomb. Marley’s chain-rattling ghost doesn’t unnerve him, and nor does the Ghost of Christmas Past – but then Maggie Thatcher was more good fairy than wicked witch to Scrooge in the 1980s. Mind you, who would have thought her speeches were destined to become the comic stuff of pantomime?
Juliet Cadzow, complete with bossy handbag, is scarily on message as the Iron Lady, while – making this Oran Mor quartet a panto dream-team – Keith Warwick is an ideal Christmas Present, sporting the fright wig and “hiya pals” salutation associated with another panto-luminary, Gerard Kelly.
Scrooge may have quantitatively eased his lifestyle with the production budget, but our thesps are unfazed and resourceful. See cardboard cut-outs? See madcap versatility and audience volunteers? And even if Tiny Tim proves a tot of few – but rude – words, the ghost of Dickens would surely chuckle and declare: “God bless them, everyone!”
Star rating: ****
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