I really enjoyed watching “A Christmas Carol” and Edgar’s adaptions were successful and enjoyable to watch.
It was really clever how Edgar incorporated Charles Dickens into the play, and how it was the story of him writing the novel. He came in and out of the story rewriting it if not liking the outcome. This added humour for the audience.
As an audience member I really enjoyed how there was dancing and singing that enlightened the play. It was all significant to the time period and the costumes too were amazing and fitted the time period exactly.
The cast was quite small and there was a lot of multi rolling but my favourite characters were Scrooge, played by Edmondson, because he was funny but also as you watch you start to feel sympathy for him. My other favourite character was Christmas Past played by Rebecca Lacey because she added humour and acted as a therapist for Scrooge helping him see what he’s missed from the past, giving the realisation that he used to love Christmas.
The play was a lot more ghostly than I expected and there were some jump scares that caught me off guard, it was amazing how they made the actors look so ghost like, at one-point Edmondson puts his hand through another actor. This really amazed me and shocked me at the same time.
The staging was amazing, a massive four posted bed came up from out the ground and all actors double up as stagehands for moving pieces of furniture across the stage. They used doors to show separating rooms and different houses which I found very effective.
The greatest thing about the RSC theatre is that it has a thrust stage, so actors come on stage from different directions, and it adds more intimacy with the audience and actors.
I really enjoyed the play, and it was all that I expected and more. The play had more ghostly parts than that originate in the novel, but the adaption was really successful, and it was smart how Edgar added the part of Dickens being involved in the play. This then showed how Charles Dickens wanted the novel to be and how it turned out. It also shows the morals that Dickens wanted to show in the novel and how he wanted to show them.
Hi Louisa
Really liked the review I was just was wondering what age range would be suitable for this play?