’Tis the season for A Christmas Carol — or two, or three
Shaw Festival, Ross Petty both take a first shot at the classic with wildly varying approaches
It’s that time of year. Chestnuts roasting, Jack Frost nipping and, everywhere you look, A Christmas Carol cropping up at your local theatre.
From the traditional to the experimental, there are versions of the Dickens classic on many GTA and southern Ontario stages this season; among them, two major institutions taking their first crack at the famous story, with rather different approaches.
This week, Ross Petty Productions, which has been staging family musicals in the English pantomime tradition at the Elgin Theatre for 22 years, premieres A Christmas Carol: The Family Musical With a Scrooge Loose. And, for the first time in its 55-year history, the Shaw Festival is putting on its own ver- sion of the show, an adaptation written and directed by Tim Carroll, the festival’s artistic director since 2016.
Through the wonders of Skype, I brought Petty and Carroll together for a Christmas Carol confab.
Tim, what’s the thought behind adding A Christmas Carol to the Shaw’s programming?
Tim Carroll: One of the first things I said when I got here — as did Tim Jennings, the executive director — was why don’t we have a Christmas show? It turns out there had been problems heating the Royal George (Theatre). We looked into it and the technology had improved, and suddenly it was possible.
It’s such a Christmasy town, Niagara-on-the-Lake. It’s a perfect venue for A Christmas Carol. What drew you to A Christmas Carol as a panto, Ross?
Ross Petty: It’s one of those things that seems almost sacrilegious to do anything to . . . you know, fracture something that is such a classic. But when considering what to do this year I thought: yes, there are so many wonderful things to fracture in that story. I’m not going to give away too many secrets, but in our version Scrooge loves Christmas as opposed to hating Christmas, because he has a monopoly on Christmas tree farms, turkey farms, candy cane factories, all of the above. His theme is “I must own Christmas, I must own it, I must own it.”
When we decided to do it I called (Soulpepper Theatre artistic director) Albert Schultz because they have their annual production. I just wanted to forewarn him we were doing it. He said, “Well, that’s very collegial of you, Ross,” and I said, “Well thank you Albert, I’m that kind of guy.” So he’s going forward with his and we’re going to be doing the opposite with ours. Tim, is yours a more traditional take on the material?
TC: Yes, mine cleaves very closely to the original, because with a town like this and with the playing strength of the Shaw ensemble it seems sensible to lean into the Victoriana and the elegant language . . . For us, in such a Dickensian town, it makes sense for us to be — not entirely faithful, the staging will be not exclusively Victorian — but the language is as much as possible taken straight from the book. With Paul Sportelli as musical director and Michael Therriault as Scrooge, can we expect that the Shaw’s Christmas Carol will be highly musical?
TC: Yes, though Michael gets to sing less than anyone else, as it happens. The music is based around traditional carols but occasionally distorting them and making them more spooky for the ghosts. Ross, the actor playing your Scrooge, Cyrus Lane, has serious classical theatre chops.
RP: I think it’s important to have someone with classical training play Scrooge. He’s never offstage and he has to have a wonderful ability for characterization, and also for panto — he needs that craziness about him as well. Cyrus has that; I think he’s done standup in his time. Ross, you talked about competing with Soulpepper. Can there be too many Christmas Carols? Is there a danger of tapping out the market?
RP: There will always be an audience. Think about how many times people sit through the Alastair Sim movie, year after year. I think it’s something that will continue as an evergreen.
TC: I agree with Ross. I think it’s a lovely thing to be able to build into your Christmas traditions. There’s a place for all kinds of theatre in the world, including the thing that you’ve never seen before that pushes the boundaries of what you thought theatre could be, and a piece which is the same that you saw last year but infused with new actors . . . all of these are part of the mixed diet of theatre.
RP: I’ve always been so envious of my wife (Karen Kain, artistic director of the National Ballet) who brings The Nutcracker back year in and year out. I think maybe this could be something for me to think about for the future, bringing back A Christmas Carol. It would be an interesting risk to take next year. The audience is so used to “We want to see a brand new show, Petty.” Tim, do you hope this will become a Shaw Festival perennial?
TC: Well, the thing is to let the audience lead it, let the audience tell us whether we’re tapping out or not. And for all intents and purposes we’ve sold out already (since our interview, the Shaw’s production has completely sold out and the theatre has programmed it again next season).
We have a lot of people in the Niagara region who we’ve never reached at Shaw and I want this show to reach them. I want to assure them that the festival is about fun and entertainment. A Christmas Carol: The Family Musical With a Scrooge Loose, written by Matt Murray, and directed and choreographed by Tracey Flye, plays at the Elgin Theatre Nov. 24 to Dec. 31. See rosspetty.com or call 1-855-599-9090. Tickets for the Shaw Festival’s 2018 production of A Christmas Carol go on sale to the general public Dec. 9 at shawfest.com and 1-800-511-7429. Karen Fricker is a Toronto Star theatre critic. She alternates the Wednesday Matinée column with Carly Maga.