A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story

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Thu 14 Nov 2024 - Sun 05 Jan 2025

It wouldn’t be Christmas without at least one production of Charles Dickens’ yuletide classic A Christmas Carol on stage and it has to be said this production at Birmingham Rep is a very fine one indeed.

First performed at Nottingham Playhouse in 2021, the adaptation by Mark Gatiss sticks very faithfully to Dickens, giving us a Victoriana Christmas packed with tradition and familiarity.

At its centre is, of course, the ultimate festive, and in fact year-round, grump and miser Ebenezer Scrooge who, when he is faced with a series of ghostly visits from his former colleague Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future determines to change his ways.



Matthew Cottle’s Scrooge is everything he should be. He’s nasty to the point of hitting small children and scoffing at the problems of the poor. He treats his employee Bob Cratchit (Oscar Batterham) like a dog and his nephew Fred (Lance West) a little better. Muttering and grumbling, Scrooge is the ultimate party pooper – you wouldn’t want this guy at your Christmas dinner.

Despite the caricature, Cottle gives us a believable Scrooge who is so shocked by his visions he not only becomes a better man but rapidly learns that life is much more pleasant when you’re good.
Rufus Hound is a suitably scary Ghost of Jacob Marley, clanking his chains, pronouncing with his voice of doom and ominously warning Scrooge that he must change his ways or face the same miserable fate – to be laden down for all eternity.

Grace Hogg-Robinson gives us an eerie Ghost of Christmas Past, in the guise of a young girl swinging from the bedpost and reminding Scrooge of the life he could have had. And Mark Theodore is an imposing Ghost of Christmas Present who shows Scrooge just how tough the life of the Cratchits is – and the difference he could make.

Directed by Adam Penford, this Christmas Carol is promoted very much as a ghost story and yet it doesn’t feel particularly any more ghostly or scary than many other versions I’ve seen. It carries an age recommendation of 12 and that is probably fair enough but don’t expect to be terrified out of your wits – this isn’t a jumpscare horror story, it’s a tale of ghostly apparitions who can change a man with their visions.



Paul Wills’ sets put both Marley and Scrooge on high desks, positions from which they can look down on the ordinary people both physically and metaphorically and it is only when Scrooge comes down to earth and meets folk as equals that he can join in their carolling and Christmas enjoyment.

At Birmingham Rep until 5 Jan, the piece finishes with carol singers performing O, Come All Ye Faithful, snow falling and Scrooge joining in the Christmas fun – what could be more fitting for a festive show than this?

For information and tickets see here.

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