A rousing standing ovation hailed Adrian Edmondson’s performance as Scrooge at the end of the RSC's triumphant revival of David Edgar’s festive adaptation.
Edmondson is now 40 years on from his often shocking arrival as the destructive force known as Vyvyan in The Young Ones – but his sense of comedic timing remains undiminished, as does his ability to ad-lib when required.
And he skilfully generates what is left of all that punkish aggression into a suitably mean-spirited portrayal of old miser Scrooge.
Director Rachel Kavanaugh deftly handles Edgar’s adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, which sees the writer (a lively and sympathetic portrayal by Gavin Fowler) as one of the characters in the drama along with his editor and friend John Forster (played in amusing style by Beruce Khan) – and they debate how possible denouements could be resolved while the main action takes place.
But this season’s performance has an even more acute relevance due to the current cost-of-living crisis and the poverty that so many face following the depredations resulting from 12 years of Tory economic mismanagement.
So the Victorian hardship on stage merely holds a mirror up to what so many people are facing right now – even more so after the Government’s recent, crushing ‘autumn statement’.
Designer Stephen Brimson Lewis’s set is by turns a Christmas card scene complete with falling snow, the chilly office where Scrooge works and also a dodgy place for people to set foot in with dark, villainous folk and the threat of the workhouse for impoverished children.
There are plenty of ‘Bah humbugs’ before Scrooge is taken on his bewildering journey by the three ghosts of Christmas, the last one’s appearance causing a collective gasp among the audience.
It’s almost as baffling for older heads, who remember the manic Vyvyan well, to see Edmondson break into uncharacteristic smiles as his limited view of the world is transformed.
And as he chucks a coin to one impoverished little girl and it goes rolling to the other side of the stage, Edmondson immediately extemporises and throws her another, chuckling, ‘Have another one – I’m feeling generous today’.
A dig at one of the recent ‘unkempt’ incumbents of No.10 – no prizes for guessing who – adds to the humour in no little style to the audience’s delight.
And, by the end, the theatregoers have been taken through the gamut of emotions – with some singing and dancing also thrown in – and the smiles on the audience’s faces as they cheered Edmondson and his crew were as warm as a winter log fire.
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, until January 1, 2023.
For more details and booking, contact: rsc.org.uk/box of fice 01789 331111
