A Christmas Carol
Leeds Playhouse

“DON'T be so hard on me!” whines Ebenezer Scrooge to the tortured ghost of his erstwhile business partner Jacob Marley, a line that captures the eternal child trapped within the central character as well as the pithy humour injected into Deborah McAndrew's adaptation of A Christmas Carol at Leeds Playhouse.

It's this focus on character and uplifting family entertainment rather than overt politics — despite the parallels in the narrative with Food Bank Britain that might be explored — that the playwright and director Amy Leach bring to the perennial festive favourite.

This is very much a production that remains faithful to Charles Dickens's Victorian sensibilities while playing loose with detail.

The opening scenes are fairly standard fare, with the dark candlelit stage creating a mood of unease for the manacled apparition of Marley (Joe Alessi) and his warning to Scrooge. As it progresses, however, it becomes saturated in colour and carol singing.

The ebullient Mr Fezziwig (Alessi again), Scrooge's first employer, is a less sinister Willy Wonka in his mismatching colours and cloud of orange hair. The Ghost of Christmas Present, meanwhile, emerges from a gift-wrapped parcel in tulle Christmas tree skirt.

Performed with gusto by Elexi Walker, she brings an element of pantomime as the audience obediently call out: “Behind you!” when Scrooge attempts to hide.

This audience interaction is one of the benefits of the play being staged in the theatre's intimate pop-up studio, allowing the production to draw out the basic humanity and the heart-warming sea change of Rob Pickavance's Scrooge from grumpy old man to virtually skipping festive convert.

By the end of the show, the audience would have to be made of hard stuff to not have undergone a similar transformation.
 
Runs until 19 January, box office: leedsplayhouse.org.uk.