Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is an ageless tale. How else to explain an almost full house on a hot December night in Sydney for a snowy English parable about Victorian-era social inequality?
The story of a miserly misanthrope’s journey to spiritual redemption is lodged in our collective consciousness. And this Belvoir production, an adaptation by Anne-Louise Sarks and Benedict Hardie, proves the 1843 novella is more than musty Victoriana, with plenty to say to modern Australia.
Dickens’ morality tale, written in just six weeks, is a criticism of the political class and a plea for social reform. There might have been a temptation in Belvoir’s production, directed by Sarks, to allude to contemporary politics, but tweaking of the original is mostly limited to Aussie accents and modern dress. The snow still falls – in bucket loads.
The indictment of Ebenezer Scrooge (a believable, dishevelled Robert Menzies) is delivered by the story’s famous three ghosts. Christmas Past (a smooth Ivan Donato) plays on what might have been had Scrooge been a better man; Christmas Present (a tinselled, infectiously joyful Kate Box) elicits empathy with the poor family of his clerk, Bob Cratchit (a lovable Steve Rodgers); and Christmas Yet to Come scares him (as only Victorians could) with a foretaste of retribution to come.
Pared back to basics on an empty black stage, but helped by some evocative lighting and ghostly sound effects, the inventive ensemble cast give the production a pantomime quality, as well as some fine carolling. At its heart, A Christmas Carol is meant to be festive and there’s a lot of joy in a show suitable for all but the youngest theatregoers.
The Cratchit family’s Christmas lunch (with Ursula Yovich as Mrs Cratchit, Peter Carroll as Grandpa and Miranda Tapsell as Tiny Tim) is a tableau of gratitude and comedy amid poverty. That such a cold-hearted man as Scrooge can reclaim his humanity offers hope to a world still plagued by the wilful ignorance of the rich and powerful towards those in need.
Scrooge’s nephew Fred (Eden Falk) says Christmas is the time when people “open their shut-up hearts freely, and think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave”. That’s a Christmas wish for modern Australia, just as it was for Dickens’ England.
• A Christmas Carol is at Belvoir, Sydney, until 24 December
