A Christmas Carol

A bold, high-spirited new interpretation of a seasonal favourite
This festive season, the Adelaide Rep will be staging the South Australian premiere of Patrick Barlow’s energetic and invigorating new take on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, which was acclaimed in London and New York for breathing new life into a classic tale. Brought to life by a cast of five actors and two puppeteers, who each assume multiple roles and occasionally break the fourth wall to engage with the audience directly, this production places a greater emphasis on intimacy over spectacle, so that the audience can feel fully immersed in the emotional journey of the characters. Barlow’s script also places a greater emphasis on certain nuances overlooked by most adaptations, resulting in a more complex and subtle depiction of the often-caricatured Scrooge, a depiction that is not without moments of pathos and even humour.

The journey of Ebeneezer Scrooge - an embittered, selfish and mean-spirited miser who is transformed overnight into a kind, considerate and friendly man due to the intervention of three ghosts – is a roller coaster ride of emotion. Scrooge undergoes moments of spine-tingling terror, tear-jerking melancholy, wildly euphoric joy and eerie foreboding, all of which rock him to the core. These epic highs and lows are brought across with bracing immediacy by Barlow, whose script never wavers in its focus on the core fundamentals of the story, and which allow the actors to tap into the raw emotional power of a situation that is often presented as mere pageantry in other adaptations.

Barlow’s play also offers some thought-provoking insights into the social forces that drive the main character, some of which still resonate in today’s world and contains some slyly humorous meta-commentary on the ways in which Dickens has become a fixture of pop culture, over a century after his death. Suffice it to say, even if you think you know everything there is to know about “A Christmas Carol”, chances are you will be pleasantly surprised by this production.

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