A new show which re-imagines A Christmas Carol, with Dickens cast as Scrooge forced to face his sins, comes to Hallé St Peter’s, Manchester
Charles Dickens’ reading of A Christmas Carol isn’t going to plan: he finds himself re-cast as Scrooge, with his past, present and future being played out, as presented by two women he mistreated: his wife Catherine and his mistress, the actress Ellen Ternan, who was only 19 when Dickens first approached her at the age of 45.
The show stars Clive Hayward as Charles Dickens (who aptly played Fezziwig in two productions of RSC’s A Christmas Carol), Karen Ascoe as Catherine Dickens and actor-cellist Rosalind Ford as Ellen ‘Nelly’ Ternan.
The playwright, Clare Norburn, won the Colin Skipp Memorial Cup at the Arts Richmond Radio Playwriting Competition last year for her radio play ‘The End. Roll Credits’, about TV playwright Dennis Potter’s famous TV interview with Melvyn Bragg. Since 2010, Norburn has been developing a new genre of ‘concertplays’ which seamlessly combine music and theatre.
The play is set on Dickens’ final Christmas Eve, 1869. Against his doctor’s orders, Dickens gives one of his acclaimed theatrical readings of ‘A Christmas Carol’. But from the moment the lights go down, his life becomes strangely entangled with that of his character Scrooge.
Clare goes on to explain the unusual premise of the show: “In What the Dickens?, I’ve reimagined Charles Dickens’ classic ‘A Christmas Carol’, taking inspiration from the secrets of Dickens’ life: his secret mistress, his terrible treatment of his wife and his early life as a boy working in a factory which made shoe blacking, of which he was deeply ashamed. I have also drawn on how unwell and febrile he was in his final years: he put so much energy into his theatrical readings that he would often collapse afterwards in the wings. So, I have used all those elements to overlay the familiar story we all know of ‘A Christmas Carol’, with Dickens himself being forced to re-evaluate his life and the impact of his actions.”
Dickens’ carefully managed image as a family man, who created the very quintessence of Christmas, starts to unravel. He is haunted by the women he mistreated: his wife and mother of his ten children, Catherine, and his young mistress, actress Ellen (Nelly) Ternan who was only 19 when Dickens first approached her at the age of 45. They strip aside the jovial public family image Dickens has tried to maintain and force him to face up to his past, present and future. Can Dickens learn from the ghosts, repent and be saved – as Scrooge was saved?
The collision of music and theatre is Clare Norburn and her company The Telling’s hallmark. The drama is soundtracked by live music: all seven performers act, play instruments and sing, sometimes all at the same time! They perform colourful Victorian popular songs and street music, old carols and lively folk dances, arranged by acclaimed music theatre composer Steven Edis (known for his time at The National Theatre with Trevor Nunn in the 1990s). Steven has also written new music including a fun jingle for Warren’s Blacking, where Dickens worked as a boy.
Listings Information:
What the Dickens? – The Telling
Saturday 7 December, 7.30pm – 9.20pm Hallé St Peter’s, 40 Blossom St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 6BF
Tickets: www.thetelling.co.uk/dickens-mcr
