Step inside this cold candle lit church and you are transported to Scrooge and Marley’s office, its smoky crepuscular interior inhabited by the miserly frigid proprietor himself scratching away at his desk while poor Bob Cratchet works away and shivers in the cold.
Welcome to A Christmas Carol at The Spire
This fully immersive performance of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol begins as soon as you turn into the candlelit venue, a former church now a pretty cool arts venue run by the Pink Fringe lot. You are greeted with carols singers, smoke, snow and a lovely sense of stepping back into a Victorian street.
Marley’s Ghost, the first great supernatural entrance in the plot was superb, his entrance was spooky, ethereal, funny, with just the right amount of chills and the effective use of smoke machine, excellent imaginative lighting, sound scapes and very good costume conspire to transform the Spire into a slice of Victorian London with Marley rattling his chains at a wonderfully freaked out Scrooge.
The cast chop and change and the pacing of the narrative is a hop, skip and festive jump but the tensions builds, as it must, to the inevitable happy conclusion and even though we know the ending well, the chills, warning and potential grief is handled well, the callousness of Scrooges own death and the abject distress at the grave of Tiny Tim were both touching moments that pulled some seriously good acting out of the crew.
The acting was very good, from all the cast, young and old. Convincing, touching with just the amount of mugging and engagement with the audience. The technical crew, particularly the sound and lighting were excellent and managed on some very limited technology to convince of the shivery supernatural edge that’s so essential to the story. The fade in and out of the ghosts was very very well done indeed. I was impressed with the lighting design and the director Gary Sefton (who also takes the title role in this production) has obviously given a lot of thought to using the wonderfully festive space of the Spire itself, you couldn’t really ask for a more Christmasy venue than this mock Gothic church with high stained glass, pews, organ pipes, Gothic arched doorways and looming dark corners.
I’ve seen a lot of Christmas and festive stuff the last two weeks, from Kew Gardens to the opera but last night at the Spire I felt the spirit of Christmas descend most properly, settling on us like glittering silent snow and the cast and technical crew managed to create a beguiling, charming and touching immersive Christmas experience which lived up to Dickens idea of tradition, tipped its Christmassy hat to modern life and leaned hard and fast into the cold commercial frosty face of Christmas and blew it a little warm life affirming kiss.
See more info on the cast here
My companion thought it very lovely, was touched by Tiny Tim and the ambiance generated by the church and spicy hot mulled wine and we both left feeling most festive indeed.
This is my Christmas Show tip! Take the kids, take the boyfriend, take the girlfriend, take the in-laws or out-laws, take the neighbor as it’s Xmas, but dress up warm, munch a home-made mince pie and warm your hands and heart on mulled wine, sit back and immerse yourself in this wonderfully evocative performance in the round of the ultimate story of festive redemption.
Dress up warm though the church is cold, which I thought added another convincing Victorian sense of miserly chill to the drama and please don’t be a scrooge, get up and dance when they want you to, it’s well well worth it, where else can you reel and spin down the aisle this season?
A Christmas Carol at The Spire
16-24 Dec (not 20 Dec), 6pm & 8.15pm
Tickets from £6.
Excellent. With a bus stop right outside the venue
Recommended
For more info or to book tickets see the website here.
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