A Christmas Carol
22 December 2024
Hoxton Hall
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
The Dickens Theatre Company travelled around the country to present their version of A Christmas Carol, and I caught one of their performances at Hoxton Hall. The moody Victorian music hall has a rich history and gorgeous architecture inside and out and is a great venue for this kind of production.
The small stage only has a few props and costume pieces on it, which is quickly addressed at the opening of the show. The framing in this production is that Charles Dickens is travelling with his troupe of actors to bring a grand staging of his Christmas Carol to audiences. But today, the actors and the majority of the set are stuck on a train somewhere in Essex. Because the show must always go on, Dickens will play Scrooge, while his tour manager George Dolby plays all other characters, of which there are over 30. While this is a fun little framing device, it doesn’t get brought up again throughout the hour and a half long show, it feels a little irrelevant by the time the action gets going and could just as easily be billed as a two-hander for no other reason than that it’s actually fun to watch two actors scramble to switch between characters.
That being said, it’s a beautiful production of my favourite Christmas story. The whirlwind of changing characters is brilliant, with both actors utilising accents, posture, and mannerisms to effortlessly distinguish between the myriad of different characters. The background soundscape is expertly curated, elevating the storytelling to a beautifully staged experience.
The spirited performance is full of rich detail, selecting passages that are often left out of other stage productions, leaning into the Victorian life and wide reaching effect of Scrooge’s behaviour to draw up a sumptuous world, while still shortening the story to be played in one act without an interval. Scrooge himself does feel quite mild in his portrayal though, not as grumpy and callous as he’s often drawn to be, foregoing his tantrums and meanness in favour of adding more scenes. The production could use a little more intensity here and there, still it is a beautiful version of the tale that feels like a warm, festive hug!
