Review
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Theatre Calgary
Starring Stephen Hair
Directed by Nikki Loach
Runs until December 22
Max Bell Theatre
Theatre Calgary has celebrated the holidays with A Christmas Carol every year for the last 14 years – it is a theatre phenomenon without precedent and without comparison.
Local actors line up to perform in the show, and many of them return year after year. Although in real life you can’t have the same party twice, obviously that’s one rule that doesn’t apply to theatre folks. This is the ninth year in a row that Stephen Hair has played the old miser Scrooge, the second time the production has been directed by Nikki Loach, and several other cast members make return appearances, including Ravonna Dow, Dave Kelly, Tony Eyamie, Maureen Jones, Tim Koetting, Jane McFarlane and Barry Thorson.
It’s a fun gig for the company – and that spirit of fun comes across the footlights. It should be no surprise at all that Stephen Hair is back again. What actor wouldn’t want to have a go at Scrooge? You get to be the meanest bastard in town for the first part, and then you get to be the world’s greatest philanthropist, and the transformation is applauded by the audience. Many of the greatest actors of stage and screen have played this character over the past 150 years.
Like the Victorian melodramas that filled the theatres when Dickens wrote it, A Christmas Carol is an emotional thrill ride. It’s a ripping good ghost story, with three ghosts scaring the pants off the villain. It’s a morality play in which the villain is shown the error of his ways. It’s a love story about love lost and found. The themes of redemption and renewal, and of charity and concern, are tailor-made to warm even the coldest heart.
With so many kicks at the can, it’s no wonder the production runs like a well-oiled machine. In this adaptation, Greg Nelson and Ian Prinsloo tell the story simply. The action flows easily from scene to scene, with very little obtrusive stage machinery or trickery – Scrooge’s four-poster bed is rolled on and off by the actors as they provide narration. The ghosts have some flashy effects for their entrances and exits, but nothing is allowed to get in the way of the story.
And actors aren’t the only ones who keep coming back. Calgary audiences have embraced the show as one of the city’s holiday traditions, and people come back year after year. There’s no denying that A Christmas Carol has become an annual cult hit – no one threw toast or squirted squirt guns when I saw the show, but there were some in the audience saying the lines along with Scrooge. And with Bob Cratchit. And with Tiny Tim.
There is probably some deep significance to Calgary’s love affair with Scrooge. What does it say about the city when the biggest theatre in town devotes so much of their effort to the same show over and over again? What does it say about Calgarians that we fill the theatre to see the same show over and over again? Certainly the feel-good aspect of the show works to the advantage of the Calgary Food Bank – every show closes with an appeal for donations and Theatre Calgary’s audiences respond very enthusiastically, raising more than $40,000 last year.
A Christmas Carol adds up to a warm and fuzzy Christmas tradition as likable as a glass of eggnog shared with a good friend. |
