During Friday night’s never-ending blizzard, I drove into Edmonton to review A Christmas Carol, now playing in its 10th straight year in the Citadel’s Maclab Theatre. With cast iron grip on the steering wheel, I muttered to no one in particular “This better be worth it.”
And it was.
Stepping from the Maclab’s urban jungle lobby into the theatre, you are immediately moved into Dickens’ London world. What is especially touching in Tom Wood’s adaptation is the balance it presents of Victorian England’s darker side. The severe class divisions and the miserable lives of the poor contrast sharply with the frothy comfort of the affluent.
Directed by Bob Baker, it is a thoughtful social commentary on money, happiness, family and how we treat those around us. Even though I know this powerful morality tale backwards and forwards, top to bottom, the gradual transformation of an angry Ebenezer Scrooge from skinflint to a generous man affected my emotions in both a spiritual and physical way.
In one way A Christmas Carol is a huge ensemble production with about 40 adults and children creating an array of superlative performances. In another way, it is a star vehicle for Wood, who fills the title role perfectly.
Wearing a gentleman’s overcoat and top hat that covers long, scraggly hair, Wood’s stoop-shouldered Scrooge shuffles through London’s brisk streets surrounded by street urchins and the working poor. In a comic grumpiness, he avoids every soft sentiment, walled in by the pain of being abandoned by an absent father and a kind sister’s premature death.
Wood’s performance is big and blustery. Yet when the nocturnal ghosts come calling and Scrooge revisits his life, there are moments of genuine pathos that are truly touching. It is quite an awakening to see Scrooge morph from vindictive meanness to a bashful, newly energized man eager to embrace life.
Many of the performances in A Christmas Carol deserve a tilt of the hat. John Ullyatt’s Ghost of Jacob Marley is a man shackled by the chains of avarice and tortured with remorse. He carries a great weight on his back and each step is bent in pain.
Kate Ryan reprises the role of Mrs. Cratchit, a kind, gentle woman who is the anchor of her poor family. A soft-spoken woman and fiercely protective mother, Ryan’s Mrs. Cratchit reveals a series of emotions from wifely tenderness to monumental grief at Tiny Tim’s passing.
Maralyn Ryan’s Mrs. Dilber, Scrooge’s housekeeper, perhaps best embodies the desperation of Victorian London’s working poor. The anger and powerlessness she feels when threatened with job termination if she fails to work on Christmas Day is wrenching.
One of the play’s most delightful scenes is Christmas Day as Mrs. Dilber brings Scrooge breakfast and he’s giggling like a young child. In the space of three lines, Mrs. Dilber shifts from confusion and concern to outright terror and joy at the new Scrooge who gives her a guinea, the first Christmas present after many years of service.
Special kudos to Leslie Frankish’s lavish costumes and constantly moving set pieces; lighting designer Robert Thomson and sound designer Michael Becker’s eerie atmosphere, and musical director Ryan Sigurdson’s well-played score.
So bundle up the kids and let the magic of dreams sweep you away. This particular Christmas tale never grows old.
Review
A Christmas Carol<br />Running until Wednesday, Dec. 23<br />Citadel Theatre<br />9829 - 101 A Ave.
