David Burt in A Christmas Carol at Middle Temple Hall, London. Picture: Scott Rylander
A Christmas Carol continues at Middle Temple Hall, London until 30 December.
Site-specific theatre inevitably adds an extra dimension to the experience as we saw so thrillingly with the recent pie-and-mash-shop Sweeney Todd, and, with A Christmas Carol playing there, a first visit to the magnificent Middle Temple Hall, where Twelfth Night premiered at Candlemas 1602, was a chance too good to miss.
Middle Temple is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call its members to the English Bar, but on this occasion its majestic hall, completed in 1573, is the backdrop for a musical version of the Dickens classic that remains as much a part of our Christmas as the mince pies and mulled wine that were doing such roaring trade at the interval.
The Dickens connection is that he wrote A Christmas Carol, in just six weeks, while a long-time ‘student’ at Middle Temple between 1839 and 1855 when seriously considering a career as a barrister, and the Inns of Court feature extensively in a number of his novels. Here this Yuletide morality tale of Ebenezer Scrooge’s conversion from misery-guts to life-and-soul of the party, handing out pay rises and good cheer hither and thither, is given a charming traditional spin by Antic Disposition, a group whose brief is to stage new interpretations of the classics, Shakespeare in particular, in unusual locations.
Adapting Dickens’ novella to the stage are the group’s founders, director Ben Horslen and designer John Riseboro, who provide book and lyrics, while the music, chiefly re-workings of Christmas carols, is in the hands of composer Christopher Peake and a band of three, with MD Nick Barstow on keys, Carole Carpenter (violin) and Martha MacBean (cello).
This is a revisiting of A Christmas Carol at Middle Temple – the group put it on there two years ago – but they have also performed The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream there as well as taking English masterpieces to historic churches and even stunning open-air locations such as medieval French village squares.
A number of the cast – Charlotte Armer (Mrs Cratchit), Chris Courtenay (Jacob Marley’s ghost), Elliot Fitzpatrick (Fred), Katie Lovell (Ghost of Christmas Past) and Dean Riley (Peter Cratchit) – reprise the roles they played two years ago, but it is seasoned West Ender David Burt who holds the two-hour show together as the incorrigible Scrooge, with strong assistance from another with plenty of experience, David Anthony, as the Ghost of Christmas Present.
Three different young actors, Ethan Fairclough, Daniel McCarthy and Theo Williams, share the role of Tiny Tim over the 11-performance run, while Paul Tonkin (Bob Cratchit), Naomi Gisbey (Martha Cratchit), a recent Urdang graduate making her theatrical debut, and Emma Whittaker, complete a perfectly-costumed cast.
If adopting Scrooge-mode, I’d be duty-bound to say that Middle Temple acoustics aree not exactly designed for this type of fare and, sitting four rows from the front, it is often hard, particularly with the women, to catch what is being said. There are also plenty of back views of the cast which don’t help either.
Yet after Act I that only occasionally catches fire, this Carol plays such an upbeat tune after the interval – no doubt helped by the mulled wine – that it sends us home thinking how lucky we all are, how nice it would to be to help those less fortunate than ourselves, and how family and friendship have values far beyond monetary measure.
Simple really, so festive greetings to one and all… and count your blessings.
Jeremy Chapman
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