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Dickens of a good time with this Christmas Carol
Heart-warming: Lladel Bryant, Joe Alessi and Darren Kuppan in A Christmas Carol
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
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.
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