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Cathryn Bowler as the spiteful but bewitched Mrs
Marley, the production's Scrooge
A Christmas Carol: A Fairytale
Criterion Theatre, Coventry
****
Criterion, Coventry's premier amateur
theatre company, the Criterion, recently celebrated its 60th
anniversary. Bold and innovative, it has always been forward in
promoting new work, right from the very start.
And still now: Lucy Kirkwood, Maxine Peake,
Andrew Sharpe, Jack Thorne, Dawn King; numerous revived Classics
(Orwell, Pinter, Schiller, Sondheim), or adaptations thereof Mark
Haddon's enchanting first novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the
Night-time arrives in Earlsdon in February.
The endlessly skillful, innovative Keith Railton
(here, together with Nicol Cortese), directed a Dickens adaptation, The
Haunting, in 2022, and now he has brought to the Earlsdon stage an
intriguing variation, by playwright Piers Torday, of Dickens' A
Christmas Carol. Torday's version of John Masefield's The Box of
Delights was seen at the RSC at Christmas 2023. Railton played Scrooge
in the Criterion's more traditional Christmas Carol four seasons ago.
The result was an absolute success. Why? Firstly
the script is good - fresh, inventive and imaginative, riddled with
memorable lines. The Lighting (Karl Stafford) was outstanding:
well-judged individual colours, and at one stage I saw white, orange,
blue and green spots all aiming together yet brilliantly independently,
at the same time; plus (a fine instance) ultramarine blue (or something
akin) vividly picking out Tiny Tim's gravestone. Remarkable. The Sound
(David Chapman, Dave Cornish) was spot on every time; there's one brief
sequence where I could swear it's a solo double bass. Effective. Certain
Costumes (four splendid Wardrobe mistresses) were endlessly original.
The two-tiered set had potential, but arguably ought to have been more,
and more relevantly, used.
Maltreated but partners and allies - Dean
Sheridan and Pau1Cribdon
The most novel element was making the Scrooge
character - wait for it - a woman. Cast as Scrooge's sister - "My
brother Ebenezer" - she has also been married to Marley; both have
expired. Cathryn Bowler gave what one has to hail as a staggering lead
performance. As mean as any Scrooge most of us have seen, she carves out
a hateful character, completely without compassion. "Charity is my least
favourite word"; and she turns all paupers and beggars from her door.
And of course avaricious. "If you stay one minute longer I shall start
billing you for my time." "I live my life according to my own rules."
Bowler has a rich range of expressions: her
scowling forehead and snarling eyebrows, her curling, unkindly mouth,
and ways of bitter, dismissive speaking that match her unforgiving
features. She spits words out, sneers, jeers, derides. There's no room
for pity. Every word is a hatchet. Although there's fun roo, or irony:
offered Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England "I don't
care for humorous novels." Is she really mocking, or does she actually
not know? And to a troublesome ghost "I'll just get back to bed, but
thanks for the offer."
This contrary casting does open the door, to a
modest extent, on the 19th century treatment of women. She almost
invites sympathy with "I was born into a world of fathers, of owners, of
(factory fabricators): ie self-made, jumped-up males who endlessly push
one around. Has she been a victim, and as a revenge takes it out on
others?
Cathryn Bowler is a real Criterion Stalwart -
since 2003, in fact: she has over 40 roles to her credit, Early on, the
title role in Hedda Gabler; much more recently, under different
Directors (what a team the Criterion deploys), Beatrice in Much Ado,
Hollywood icon Bette Davis, Anne in The Father, Chief Weasel (ideal
casting); and, amusingly, Mrs. Cratchit in that same 2020 Criterion A
Christmas Carol: something of a contrast!
Three down on their luck - Jan
Nightingale, Kelly Davidson and Paul Cribdon . . . again
Another highly successful element in this
production is the way several characters take on as many as four (or
more) different characters. The speed of costume changes was quite
breathtaking. The very affable Dean Sheridan, for instance, assumes more
than six parts; and Steve Cobert (Bob Cratchit) keeps turning up in a
different role. What's more, time and again their (shifting) costumes
are splendid. Sheridan appears as Jacob Marley's Ghost, with a set of
clanking chains that ran right out into the wings.
Railton makes three characters, quite often front
of proscenium, perform significant tasks. Jan Nightingale (I think 'twas
she) is saddled with a very ample, if over displayed cat's mask. I'm not
clear what purpose that had, very little affecting the narrative (though
surfacing quite often), but maybe it was explained at the start, when a
glorious huge bell, looming above the front rows, tolled (clever Sounds
again) at suitable and timely moments, mainly during the hauntings. We
were treated to countless props hilarities: a polly parrot, a
substantial and very alive mock-turkey, a talking "Churchill"-looking
dog, and so on; some dances carefully drilled, the patches of singing,
some carolling, touching and adequate.
Especially important were two characters who
ranged from the indigent to the smartly dressed. These were the
attractive and personable Kelly Davidson and the very hard worked Paul
Cribdon.
Cribdon took one's attention because after they
both (all three) had abstractly exemplified deprivation (the two kept
appearing often in this guise), he proved himself a speaker of the very
first order: magnificently enunciated, sensitively prepared and
altogether admirable. He, like Sheridan, had a real gift for
quick-changing roles and differentiating them in personality
impressively. A notable success.
But most important in this story, of course, is
the series of duels Scrooge fights with the three Ghosts, or Spirits.
First came Rowan McDonnell as Christmas Past, fetchingly kitted out by
the costumiers in yellow and orange (entrancing headress), a beautiful
vision. One tip: after each reassuring utterance, thoroughly charmingly,
her face went blank, awaiting a response but not reacting, as if
nervously awaiting her next line: something that might have been
addressed in rehearsal. Yet - a bonus - her winsome demeanour was deeply
moving.
The next Ghost was the most awesome. A huge
giant, manoeuvred I take it beneath primarily by Dean Sheridan, with two
actors, apparently Olivia Simone and Simon Truscott, manipulating the
ominous-seeming yet benign monster's massive calloused hands -
themselves a miracle by the six-man Props department. He towered almost
to the proscenium, and made a fascinating impact - exciting, in fact. He
was the classic example of the manner all departments - the Criterion's
properties, attire, cast, direction - came together to deliver such a
riveting sequence of chapters, gripping, overawing, enticing.
The weak one was Christmas future (was it that?)
which looked thoroughly weedy.. Not because of the performers (Nancy
Sylvester and/or Morgan Blundell-Smith), elsewhere an attractive and
convincing six-year-old Tiny Tim, his grave ('Timothy Cratchit,
1858-1864') searingly tragic; but because the Spirit's outfit - more or
less a white sheet with not-believable vertical tennis racquet head -
made no impact whatever. One which Scrooge (the much-compaining Mrs.
Marley) could easily have derided, not fearsome or Spirit-like at all. A
surprising oversight.
The icing on the cake (not all agreed) was the
final sequence: Mrs. Marley's experience was updated to the present day.
Clad in bodice and bloomers, she beavered away at a laptop, makes
conference calls, and seemed indifferent to all such crazy happenings.
"You piss off." But it was in this imaginative, modern dress guise -
such as jogging on the spot - that her conversion took place, with
unwonted generosity: to a son, "There's cold cottage pie in the fridge",
and to Steve Cobert's Cratchit - he proved one of the best singers, even
when crying, and given an entrancing duet with his wife (Sally Greenmont)
- "Have the rest of your life off"; and delivers more corkers: "I can
live in the past, the present and the future" contradicted by "I hate
time travel" (the Act prefaced by those famous words from the Moon
landing).
A success? Before a full house, definitely.
Admirably cohesive, stylish, clever, Railton's production deserved high
accolades. definite hit for the go-ahead Criterion.
Roderic Dunnett
12-24
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