MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O’CONNOR and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Savage House, Enzo, Madfabulous, and Erupcja
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.
SUSAN DARLINGTON swoons in the presence of a magnetic frontman
MARY CONWAY becomes impatient with the intellectual self-indulgence of Tom Stoppard in a production that is, nevertheless, total class
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship
MARY CONWAY applauds the success of Beth Steel’s bitter-sweet state-of-the-nation play


