Review – A Christmas Carol (theatre play)

13.12.2022 19:57
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Autor : Timea Lara Šipovská, Gymnázium Ivana Kupca, Komenského, Hlohovec

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I think most of the people heard about the Charles Dickens’ story of grumpy Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation which is considered one of the greatest examples of character transformation in Western literature. There are a lot of adaptations to this story but today I’m going to talk about the theatre play by TNT Theatre Britain.

I adored this version of the story but I also understand why somebody might not like it. In my personal opinion the play is definitely more enjoyable when you’ve read the book or seen the movie. And it’s not something that is valid only in this story. Generally, in theatre it’s not possible to conclude everything from the book in the play. It would simply take too long and the spectator would suddenly stop paying attention. I see drama as the great experience for the lovers of the concrete story but not as a replacement of reading the book.

Anyway, as for the actors I think all of them did a brilliant job on the stage. Even though there were only five of them, they were handling more characters very well. I think it’s admirable because the actor has to feel the character he’s playing and every character is different so they had to personalize with the current role very quick. They did a great job at this as well while they all felt very genuine.

I also loved the way they were not too serious. It was to be seen that the actors enjoyed the play and there were moments where they made the scene funny by acting like: ‘Oh, I forgot to change completely, I kept a hat that belongs to my previous character.’ I think this is the part of the theatre. Acting is exhausting activity and it should be fun not only for the audience but also for the actors.

The stage was simple but I think it was enough. It was all very cosy. There were some interactions with the audience, they were singing and dancing. They were all very talented and it could be seen that they worked hard on it. Another plus was that their English was understandable. They adapted the language to the foreign audience which was great.

I consider myself as an empathic person and in this play, I could sometimes fell the chills running down my body. The emotions were believable I was also about to cry once. So, in conclusion, as someone who knows the story well, I rate it as a brilliant adaptation and I would definitely watch it again if given a chance.