Theatre
A Christmas Carol, Tramway, Glasgow
Neil Cooper
Five stars
Ebeneezer Scrooge might well hang his head at the opening of the Citizens Theatre’s revival of their seasonal offering first served up in 2014. While all about him sing of the comfort and joy found through each other in times of adversity during the festive season, Scrooge is the perfect embodiment of self-serving greed. He may have been created by Charles Dickens more than a century ago, but, arriving onstage during a time when food banks are in abundance, Benny Young’s stone-faced portrayal of the self-loathing old miser sadly looks more contemporary than ever.
Scrooge himself, alas, appears terminally unrepentant in Dominic Hill’s production, reconstituted here by way of Rachael Canning’s already expansive set from the Citz’s proscenium arch to a three-sided affair that helps open the action out even more. This is helped by Neil Bartlett’s script, which is already fused with an inherent sense of playfulness in its pared down simplicity, so Hill’s ensemble can engage more directly with the audience. The scratching of quills by Scrooge’s bullied clerks goes beyond words in its depiction of the daily grind.
If there is a lightness to things that maybe wasn’t there previously, the sing-along moments help heighten the late-night eeriness of Scrooge being forced to face up to his demons. The latter comes largely through Canning’s puppets, from the faceless child of Christmas past to the monster of the future who looms in the gloom of Lizzie Powell’s lighting, where Nikola Kodjabasha’s live score played by the cast clatters and rumbles.
If there is one figure who becomes the play’s conscience, it is Tony Tim, the sickly child of Scrooge’s clerk Bob Cratchitt, who is a symbol of how a poverty-ridden society can destroy lives and families while the wealthy squirrel their ill-gotten riches away. Scrooge’s Damascene conversion is a necessary display of philanthropy, as well as a pointer to greater solutions in what might just be the most important Christmas play for today.
Why are you making commenting on HeraldScotland only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here