Brother Wolf’s current theatrical production of Charles Dickens’s classic tale, and arguably the greatest Christmas story of all time, A Christmas Carol gets a retelling from the perspective of Jacob Marley. Being Ebenezer Scrooge’s deceased business partner, he is now condemned to wander the Earth as a chained and tortured ghost, regretful of his sinful past, where he then decides to issue a grim warning to his former friend on Christmas Eve, exactly seven years from his passing.
Telling the story as a sole thespian show, director and performer James Hyland plays Marley with stunning conviction, matching his makeup and costume, especially the drapery of those heavy chains around Marley, which signifies his suffering and imprisonment of the past and his reliance on Scrooge’s redemption, so that he doesn’t end up like him.
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| James Hyland (Jacob Marley) |
Marley is also a sympathetic character and, as an audience member, you do feel for him. But it is the production’s minimal set, consisting of a chair, and the overall one-act performance that makes it visual and enthralling. Something that many one-act plays have failed to achieve. The actor does manage to play the main characters of the story, and like his previous production The Magic Circle it gracefully captivates the audience in wanting more, waiting till the very end.
The play runs for seventy-five minutes, but it does fly by and the production goes very well with the oppressive cold weather waiting for the spectators outside.
Another great performance and a Christmas treat for anyone looking for an entertaining piece of theatre with a feel-good ending.
5 OUT OF 5
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