A Christmas Carol
This production straddles the genres of pantomime, musical theatre and Aristophanean farce, all the while remaining true (ish) to Charles Dickens's famous novel about Bob Cratchit, the hard-working labourer, his evil, mean boss Ebenezer Scrooge and Cratchit's courageous family, most heroically the crippled boy Tiny Tim. If you have A Christmas Carol tickets, there is every chance you are already familiar with the story, it is one of the staple Christmas entertainments and different generations of the family will be familiar with different adaptations from Michale Caine and the Muppets to the classic Hollywood blockbuster. This stage play features a strong cast of familiar actors who seem to revel in the slightly absurd storytelling with the ghosts putting on a particularly hammy show. All in all, it is great fun.
A festive play
As with most festive productions, A Christmas Carol relies quite heavily on the 'bleak midwinter' theme, Australians are already au fait with the slightly weird practice of spraying fake snow around the house when it is scorching outside; it is just what we do. With this in mind, the producers of A Christmas Carol have inserted a few clever little in-jokes to please Strine humour. Which, although contrived, are dealt with in a comedic way to open up the 'fourth wall' meaning the audience really does get involved with this show. A number of stage whispers only adds to the feeling that we are all in this together, so A Christmas Carol tickets will be a hit for young and old alike.
A Christmas Carol show
The seasonal nature of the show and work commitments mean that cast members are normally known for a diverse range of disciplines. When you go to see the show, there are likely to be some Australia's Got Talent finalists and other reality TV 'stars' as well as some actors you'd recognise from Home and Away or Neighbours: Shakespeare this ain't. A Christmas Carol really comes into its own when the wicked old man Scrooge gets spooked by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future and audiences are normally invited to join in with the fun making wooooo noises and hissing whenever the baddies come onto the stage. Kids will have great fun joining in with all this and the grown-ups will have a knowing smile too. This play is fairly honest to Dickens's original manuscript but the stage allows for some poetic licence which is used with delightfully silly effect; you are going to love it.
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