Sussex Playwrights Reviews
A Christmas Carol
Lantern Light Theatre
Adapted by Sophie Flack
Directed by Kerren Garner
Technical support Katy Matthews
Music Tom Dussek
Violin Seth Morgan
Directed by Kerren Garner
Technical support Katy Matthews
Music Tom Dussek
Violin Seth Morgan
It’s the night before Christmas and Scrooge is having spectral visitations showing him the past, the present – and what the future might bring, if he doesn’t mend his ways.
Dickens’ best loved and most produced work is everywhere this Christmas and we can’t get enough of it here in Brighton this winter.
This satisfying and faithful new adaptation from Lantern Light Theatre offers an Austerity Britain take. Narrator Deborah Kearne gathers the tale together in the role of a homeless woman, highlighting the central theme of poverty and want, and the possibility of change in all our hands. A word from Sussex Homeless Support after the show delivered the lasting message that this is some people’s Christmas present.
Lantern Light’s USP is the ability to fit venue and show, and St Nicholas’ Church, probably Brighton’s oldest building, is a terrific venue. Eerie sound and lighting design by Dan Skelt highlight rood screen, dais, long aisles and real candlelight, with London fog drifting about the ivy-wreathed stone pillars creating atmosphere, visuals and mood which a theatre just can’t offer.
Seth Morgan’s Scrooge, all forkbeard and power brows, takes the commanding lead. The supporting cast double multiple roles most effectively, using each actor’s own physicality with style. As the ghosts, Sophie Flack flits between white lady Christmas spirit and the girls of Scrooge’s past, and Tom Dussek’s the rich-voiced personification of a Green Man spirit. Robert Cohen clanks with elegance as Marley’s chained ghost and Ben Baeza’s a charming Tim, while director Kerren Garner adds a great note of grim humour as the corpse-robbing Charwoman.
Churches were made for singing, at which the production excels, and the occasional echo issue aside, the tale was told crystal clear, packed with audience enjoying mulled wine and mince pies.
The production is touring this Christmas, with venues including the Round Tower in Portsmouth and St Dunstan’s Church Mayfield, East Sussex.