In this version of A Christmas Carol running at The Space, Scrooge is a hardnosed businessman in the modern world.
Writer/director Ewa Emini and writer/performer Joe Facer have teamed up to bring this adaptation to the stage. Their Scrooge drinks, potters, and picks up answerphone messages.
It’s an avant garde vision of the classic tale viewed through a working-class lens. With just Facer on stage, it relies on voices communicating with him while he pontificates like a professional politician.
This production, before the ‘ghosts’ arrive, is a bleak litany of capitalist mantras and chaotic messages. But once Scrooge takes delivery of a mysterious package, matters become more supernatural.
Dickens’s words are weaved into a modern interpretation of a man crushed by success and the pursuit of money, his sarcasm and nastiness the product of pressure from outside.
With many period-perfect versions of the tale of Scrooge out there this season, it is interesting to see a modern take that respects the original story while giving it an experimental vibe.
Sitting with Scrooged and the Ross Kemp TV version (Eddie Scrooge as loan shark), this Scrooge is a beautifully lit and imaginative exploration of greed and memory.
One curious element was the inclusion of some pop songs (Elvis, Lennon), an interesting idea but delivering speeches alongside this audio is sometimes distracting.
However, there is a pleasing amount of interaction with the audience as we follow a Scrooge bullied into ambition and revelling in the ability to dream.
The set decoration is both Victorian and contemporary, adding a sense of this Scrooge being stuck in the past, counting his cash, and parking his charm. He is there, and not there.
With strong movement direction of a man on the edge, Scrooge brings the conversations and reflections of one man’s experience and redemption to life.
I really liked this interpretation, especially the corporate culture bit alongside some very creepy elements to update the ghostly tale.
It’s a bold experiment covering the mental health aspects of a culture that only values a constant flow of money, which seems synonymous with usefulness. With each clock tick, there is a disintegration of the mind.
Without spoilers, Emini and Facer have made some clever decisions around the peripheral characters and how they manifest themselves in Scrooge’s thoughts.
Ultimately, Scrooge is somewhat hoist by his own petard, burst by his own bubble, and buried in his own Christmas pudding with a stake of holly through his heart.
Memorable and ingenious, Scrooge closes tomorrow at The Space with tickets here. I reviewed from the livestream on 14 Dec.
Find out more on the Scrooge company website.
***.5