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by Justin Haigh, directed by Sare Thorpe

The Three Ships Collective & Soup Can Theatre, Campbell House Museum, Toronto

December 4-22, 2024

Marley: “Everyone has a little bit of Scrooge in them”

This is the sixth year that The Three Ships Collective and Soup Can Theatre have presented Justin Haigh’s adaption of A Christmas Carol, but it is the first time I have had a chance to see it. The immersive, site-specific production at the Campbell house Museum has sold out every year. Now I know why. Haigh’s version of Charles Dickens’s classic 1843 tale suits the heritage 1822 home perfectly. In moving from room to room to follow the story, the audience is more engaged with the action. Besides this, Haigh’s adaptation and Sare Thorpe’s direction come closer to the essence of the story than any other version.

The show begins with the audience assembling in a downstairs room called the Robinet Room that has the sign “Scrooge and Marley” on the door. Bob Cratchit is hard at work at his desk. A violinist signals that the show is beginning. Scrooge enters, and soon thereafter the Ghost of Marley, Scrooge’s business partner who died seven years previously. As it turns out, Marley is an important figure in Haigh’s adaptation. Marley provides us with an overview of the tale and serves as our guide through the Campbell House as well as through the story.

Having someone to guide an audience of about 30 members from room to room is a necessity but choosing Marley rather than some anonymous narrator to do this is a brilliant stroke. Just as Scrooge is taken on tours through time by the three Ghosts of Christmas, so we are taken on a tour through time by a Ghost as well. Haigh has added a detail not in the original to explain Marley’s prominence. Marley claims that Scrooge stole the two twopence that were put on his eyes in the coffin, the symbolic payment to Charon to ferry a soul across the river Styx in the Underworld. Thus, Marley is left to wander the earth forever. I will admit that I thought this allusion to Charon’s fee was an anachronism. I later discovered that though the practice of putting coins on the eyes of the dead derives from antiquity, it continued into the 19th century, the dead Abraham Lincoln being a notable recipient.

Marley, thus, serves as both our this-worldly and our otherworldly guide. He leads us to seven rooms that have designated functions in the story. We are led from the Scrooge’s office in the Robinette Room to the Grand Entrance Hall and then the Withdrawing Room which serves as Scrooge’s own withdrawing room. That is where Marley appears to Scrooge and announces that he will be visited by three ghosts. That is also where the first of ghosts, the Ghost of Christmas Past appears.

The Ballroom upstairs, as one might suppose, becomes the location of Mr. Fezziwig’s ball. Here, too, Scrooge sees his young self meet and fall in love with Belle. And, here, too, Belle breaks off their engagement.

The Historic Kitchen where food is cooked over the fire in the huge fireplace, serves as the kitchen-cum-dining room-cum drawing room of the Cratchit family. Here we and Scrooge observe the Cratchits’ poverty and Tiny Tim’s illness.

The Bedroom dominated by a large four-poster is designated as Scrooge’s bedroom where we and Scrooge witness Scrooge’s maid, Mrs. Dilber, haggling with a man named Joe over the price of the deceased Scrooge’s bedlinens.

The Dining Room on the main floor serves as the dining room of Scrooge’s nephew Fred where Fred, his wife and assorted friends have gathered. At the start of the play Scrooge had rejected Fred’s invitation to dine with him. Now Scrooge, attempting to reform himself decides to honour Fred’s invitation.

The Grand Hall of the Campbell House becomes a place of transitions both from place to place and from one time period to another. There we see Scrooge as a young boy meet with his father who he will become ashamed of because of the father’s debts. There we see the unenlightened Scrooge open the front door and tell a young caroller to shut up. Later, we see the enlightened Scrooge beckon the caroller in to run errands for him as an anonymous benefactor to the Cratchits. The most imaginative use of the space occurs when the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge on a flight over London. After Marley has gathered us downstairs in the Hall, we see the Ghost lead Scrooge down the stairs, a symbol of their flying and landing.

What makes this production of A Christmas Carol stand out from so many others is how it uses the simplest means to generate strong emotions. When Scrooge asks the Ghost of Christmas Present what will happen to Tiny Tim, Tim merely stands up and slowly walks out the door, leaving his stunned parents to mourn him.

Director Sare Thorpe has drawn thoughtful performances from the entire cast. Central to the success of the production is Thomas Gough’s performance as Scrooge. Gough’s is the most believable Scrooge I have ever seen. His Scrooge’s nastiness toward Bob and Fred is not overblown. You quite likely know people who are just as stingy and self-centred. In fact, nowadays, where me-firstism is seen as some kind of virtue, this Scrooge’s meanness is not unlike the careless selfishness of prominent contemporary politicians and businesspeople.

One of the great insights Gough has is to reveal Scrooge’s nastiness as a collection of habits that Scrooge has built up to shield himself from the outside world. Gough shows us that behind this façade is a coward who crumbles as soon as Marley visits him and who weakens with the visit of each successive ghost. This insight helps explain why it is so painful for Scrooge to see scenes from his past as a child and later as a young man. He sees what he might have been before his built a shell around himself.

Especially fine is Gough’s portrayal of Scrooge’s attempts to reform himself. Too many Scrooges try to make Scrooge’s transformation from his old state to his new one as extreme as possible. This may be comic but is it is unrealistic. Gough shows that Scrooge has indeed been shaken to the core by his visions, but also that he doesn’t quite know how to begin to change his ways. Gough wonderfully demonstrates that the new Scrooge is as methodical in trying to reform himself as he had always been. His approach had not changed but rather what he applied it to. I’ve never seen this approach taken before but it makes perfect sense of the character.

Given the nature of Haigh’s adaptation, the role of Jacob Marley is the second largest in the play. Marley is literally the principal link between the audience and the players. Spencer Jones excels in this part. Despite the fact that Marley has to interact so frequently with the audience, herding them into the correct position in the Hall or directing them where to sit or stand in various rooms, Jones never drops his ghostly aloofness. Jones unleashes so much resentment in his exchange with Scrooge that it is easy to see why Scrooge becomes unsettled ahead of his three spectral visitations.

While there is some unevenness in the smaller roles, there are many performances of note. Among these are those of Nicholas Eddie as Young Ebenezer and Justine Christensen as Belle. In their first meeting Eddie plays the Young Scrooge as quiet and comically awkward around a bright young woman like Belle. In their second Eddie’s Young Scrooge is still quiet and awkward, but he is no longer comic. Eddie indicates that Scrooge simply doesn’t know how to react when Belle confronts him with the unhappy truth that he seems to love money more than her. The way Haigh has written these encounters and the way Eddie plays them is key to understanding how the Young Ebenezer becomes the unpleasant old man we first met.

For her part, Christensen plays Belle as smart and adventurous, attracted to Scrooge because he is so different from others. In her second meeting with Scrooge, Belle sees that Scrooge is indeed different but not in the positive way she had imagined. Christensen shows that Belle is bold enough to tell Scrooge the truth but hurt by his obsession for money and sorry for him at the same time.

Luke Marty is a jolly, unflappable fellow as Scrooge’s nephew Fred. As Fezziwig, he is much the same only to the ultimate degree. Most productions differentiate between Fred and Fezziwig, but here the doubling and similarity in playing the role brings out an important aspect of the story. We know that the young Scrooge enjoyed Fezziwig’s parties, but that the older Scrooge decries Fred’s exuberance. This suggests that a love for a person such as Fezziwig, now embodied by Fred, is still somewhere in Scrooge waiting to be unlocked.

One notable character is Haigh’s invention – Lydia Berryman. In the first scene Haigh has Scrooge tell Cratchit to have the eviction notice for the Berryman family ready for delivery on Christmas Day. Cratchit claims it is not finished to spare the Berrymans. Before Marley visits Scrooge in his drawing room, Haigh has Lydia Berryman visit Scrooge to plead for more time. Her father has been injured and has been unable to work. Scrooge is immovable and uses Lydia back as a desk to sign the order. Haigh likely invented the character to add more women to the cast and to show Scrooge actively commit an atrocious deed. All his actions in the original consist of refusing to do things such as heat the office, give to charity or attend Fred’s party. With the Berrymans he takes conscious action against them.

Kendelle Parks makes a very sympathetic Lydia. Parks ensures that Lydia’s arguments for her case come across as rational and her pleas deeply felt. It’s all the more terrible, then, that Scrooge should not merely reject them but also humiliate her. Haigh’s addition of this episode is so well written, one could easily mistake it for Dickens.

The disadvantage of the Campbell House is that it is not accessible to all. Watching the show requires frequent use of stairs and sometimes periods of standing. For those for whom these factors are not issues, this production of A Christmas Carol is a must-see. It is both the most engaging and the most insightful production of the Dickens classic I’ve ever seen. It sells out every year. It is sold out now but there is a waiting list. Look out for notices for the show for 2025.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Thomas Gough as Scrooge and Spencer Jones as Marley’s Ghost; Thomas Gough as Scrooge. © 2024 Laura Dittmann.

For tickets visit: christmascarolto.com.