The set is a simple, timeless cobbled street; costumes indicate the 19th century. Scrooge makes his first ghostly visit with the Spirit of Christmas Past. He is shown his young self, the only boy in the holiday-empty school, alone and reading. So vivid are the characters in his books that they seem to live before him. In Neil Duffield’s new adaptation of Charles Dickens’s 1843 story, they really do appear (embodied by the company’s excellent young-actor team).
The schoolboy Scrooge animatedly interacts with Robinson Crusoe and Ali Baba. The older, miserly Scrooge softens. Through Marc Small’s performance we almost hear the carapace of curmudgeonliness crack as stiff limbs try again the gestures of childhood (movement direction by Lesley Hutchison). It is this act of imaginative engagement that fissures Scrooge’s frozen heart and opens him to lost love and his ultimate reunion with the community that surrounds him: the beggars, the charity workers, his employee and his family.
Well, that was how my adult self saw director Ben Occhipinti’s engaging, clear and coherent production, with its visually suggestive set, props and light effects (design by Liz Cooke; lighting by Arnim Friess). I don’t think the young audience around me would have seen it in quite the same way, although judging by reactions I am pretty sure we all enjoyed it equally (through rustlings and squirming and nosebleeds and tears and slurps). We certainly all joined in with gusto to the choruses of the final carol (live music and sound effects from the 11-strong cast under Rob Hiley’s atmospheric arrangements).
Today, the Octagon celebrates 50 years of imagination-stimulating, community-celebrating live performances and associated ancillary activities. At this time of year we get to see, writ large, what they – and all regional theatres – do: offer endless possibilities for transformation. Let’s celebrate them, every one.
