CityLife

A Christmas Carol: 'An unashamedly English production'

David Beames as Scrooge

The Lowry - until January 8, 2011

‘There is something really special about the generosity of spirit that is conjured up by this time of year,” believes Rachel O’Riordan, the multi award-winning director of the Library Theatre Company’s moving and uplifting new production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

“In this production, we are operating on the premise that there is unlimited good. Even if life has given you a tough break, as it does to Ebenezer Scrooge early in his life, there is good around us if you look for it.

“If you open your heart to people and to the spirit of Christmas, then it can really benefit you, as well as all those around you and beyond that, the world.

“It’s not a frivolous approach we’re taking,” she insists, lest this might all sound a little ‘hello, sky’ to the more ‘bah humbug’ amongst us.

“In fact it’s quite a stern Victorian approach.

“We’re making an unashamedly English production and an unashamedly Christian production.”

Rachel was approached by the Library’s artistic director Chris Honer about directing this year’s Christmas family production while she was still in the midst of last year’s, the splendidly memorable Grimm Tales.

“The first thing I thought about, after I’d said yes, was who was going to play Scrooge,” she remembers.

“It needed to be someone who was prepared to join me in making a very gritty, dark rendition of the show, to explore the fact that Scrooge is a very angry man and a very damaged man.

“He’s not often played as a genuinely difficult and frightening man, which is what I wanted.

“Once I’d found David Beames to play Scrooge, then I started to think about the concept of Christianity.

“It’s set at Christmas, which is Christ’s birthday. So I very determinedly went down that road of focusing on Scrooge’s Christian redemption.

“It’s a funny mix of the supernatural and the spiritual in the play, isn’t it? Victorians were obsessed with ghosts, of course!”

There have, obviously, been umpteen versions of A Christmas Carol over the years. Even the Muppets got in on the act, brilliantly, and Alistair Sim’s film version of Scrooge is unforgettable.

“Your job as a director is to approach every piece of text, however often it might have been done, as if it’s never been done,” Rachel observes.

“My job is to look at it with fresh eyes, to make it always feel like the first time!

“Also a lot of people might feel that they know the story, for instance from the Muppets’ film, which is great, but they’ve actually never read the Dickens’novella.

“This is, for want of a better description, a piece of straight theatre, with no short cuts, no softening of the message.”

Another very important component of the production is the music, played and sung live.

“I love that!” Rachel enthuses. “I’m a great believer that we need to value our artists and part of that is keeping the music live.

“There is nothing like live music on stage for making an audience feel, ‘yeah, this is different from being at the cinema or watching the telly’.

“It’s human beings doing something really special with their bodies and part of why you go to the theatre is seeing other human beings doing stuff you can’t do yourself.

“There’s a lot of singing, especially, in this production and it adds a very warm, compassionate feeling. The human voice in song in an ensemble is a very moving thing.

“The Library Theatre is very committed to making sure their Christmas show is the best in the city and there’s a determination for people to be entertained at the highest level.

“We want people to leave the theatre feeling that good is absolutely limitless. That’s a very powerful message.”

The Library Theatre’s A Christmas Carol is at The Lowry until January 8.