Photo Credit: Mike Kwasniak
“Merry Christmas!” said Scrooge “What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry?”
You’ll have every reason to be merry if you go and see Eastern Angles A Christmas Carol this festive season. You’ll also have every reason to be amused, more than a little spooked out and thoroughly entertained.
This version of A Christmas Carol has been ably adapted by Eastern Angles CEO and Artistic Director Jake Smith and it sticks faithfully to Dickens’s story and text with some lovely local additions and plenty of humour.
Photo Credit: Mike Kwasniak
It’s also more than a little spooky and the ghostly terror is turned up a notch in this production with a set and lighting that are superb and really enhance the show. Don’t worry though, it’s not so scary that it’s not safe for children and on the night we went the little ones in the audience loved being spooked by the visitation of the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. There is some extremely clever work with puppets for the ghosts of Christmas past and future and how the puppets get passed seamlessly from actor to actor amazed me.
Photo Credit: Mike Kwasniak
But as well as being funny and spooky the show is full of wonderful characters played by a terrific cast.
Ian Crowe as Scrooge goes on the journey we know from the classic tale and is suitably miserly and miserable at the start, softening and warming to the lessons each ghosts teaches him until at the end he’s as ‘giddy as a kipper’ and it’s a tour de force of a performance.
Photo Credit: Mike Kwasniak
Felicity Sparkes, Davis Monteith and Charlie Venables play everybody else and do a wonderful job, with every characterisation different and nuanced so it never jars that you are seeing the same actor time and again. That’s down to the skill of the actors but also the director, Callum Berridge, who lets the action flow from scene to scene and character to character without missing a beat.
Photo Credit: Mike Kwasniak
This is a play with music, but isn’t a musical and it’s also a play with audience interaction, but it’s no panto. The staging is in traverse so be prepared to feel part of the action and have the actors chat with you, shake your hand and pull you into the story.
My 14-year-old son, who is studying A Christmas Carol for GCSE English, came away raving about how much he’d enjoyed this show and how wonderful all the actors had been. Believe me when I say there is no higher praise than that indeed!
If you see one show this Christmas make sure it’s this one!
A Christmas Carol by Eastern Angles runs until 5th January 2025 at The Sir John Mills Theatre Ipswich and then transfers to the Seckford Theatre in Woodbridge from 8th – 11th January 2025.
Tickets for all dates and both venues are available on the Eastern Angles Website or call the box office on 01473 211498 Monday – Friday 10am – 5.30pm
SUFFOLK THEATRE 