A Christmas Carol

Published Thursday 22 November 2007 at 18:00 by Kevin Berry

Enormous festive fun from the Oddsocks company with many welcome opportunities for audience participation.

The Dickens classic is sent up as rarely before but the actors do not tear the story to pieces.

A measure of the irreverent humour is Bob Cratchit coming through a door with Tiny Tim on his shoulders. Cratchit Senior forgets to duck. Splat! How W C Fields would have loved that. Oh and every time someone enters from the street, whoever is not on stage chucks snow through the door.

The story unfolds as a play within play, or rather a jolly romp within a jolly romp. A group of wandering Victorian players arrives. They play and sing Christmas music for the audience and then introduce their show.

Rob Laughlin makes an amiable and impressive-looking Scrooge. His fellow actors play an exhausting number of parts, as many as eight, with comic glee and infectious spirit. Abby Leamon stands out.

Oddsocks artistic director Andy Barrow has created a revolving stage for this production. No floor though. The scenery boards are slotted into a central pivot and turned around on castors. Simple and very effective.