Reviews 2010
Reviews 2010
✭✭✭✭✩
written and directed by Michael Shamata
Soulpepper Theatre Company, Young Centre, Toronto
December 6-30, 2010
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as adapted and directed by Michael Shamata has proved to be one of Soulpepper’s great successes. Not only is Shamata’s version faithful to the original story but it emphasizes its humour while de-emphasizing the sentimentality that makes far too many adaptations cloying.
Soulpepper first presented Shamata’s version in 2001 on a proscenium stage. After moving to the Young Centre in 2006, Shamata re-imagined the production for presentation in the round. There are are only gains to this decision and one wishes Soulpepper would use this configuration more often. Not only is the audience closer to the action on the stage and its four entrances but Shamata often uses the perimeter of the auditorium placing us in the very midst of the action. Without sets, we focus on Dickens’ words, not special effects, and Alan Brodie’s sensitive lighting recreates the candlelit, shadow-filled world of the mid-19th century, where ghosts might lurk in every corner. The giant glowing clock face projected onto the stage shows that not Scrooge but all of us are prisoners of time.
Joseph Ziegler is wonderful as Scrooge. He gives Scrooge’s early remarks denouncing both Christmas and love a sense of bluster suggesting from the start that he did not grow up with these attitudes but came to adopt them. This makes his gradual change of heart all the more believable and his rising joy stems from a man breaking out of his own “mind-forged manacles.” Oliver Dennis is an ideal Bob Cratchit. It’s hard to think of any other actor who could convey Cratchit’s combination of honesty, meekness and resignation and pure humanity so simply and effectively. John Jarvis rather overdoes the sufferings of Marley’s ghost but otherwise well distinguishes the three ghosts of Christmas. Kevin Bundy and Maggie Huculak are a genial Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig, Matthew Edison brings out the honour and sincerity of Scrooge’s nephew and Deborah Drakeford is is delightful as the ever-worrying Mrs. Cratchit. The four children--Alyson MacFarlane, Elliot Waugh, Charlotte Dennis and Owen Cumming as Tiny Tim--are especially fine. This year Soulpepper has introduced family packages to the show for two adults and two children. This would be a perfect means not only to enjoy this classic tale as a family but also to introduce children to the magic of live theatre.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2010-12-07.
Photo: Joseph Ziegler. ©Sandy Nicholson.
2010-12-07
A Christmas Carol