An excellent Christmas Carol that should become a tradition here
Something happened beginning November 22 that must continue to happen at the end of November every single year. CentreStage Productions presented A Christmas Carol, written, scored and directed by Jehan Aloysius.
To simply present a beloved classic is daunting enough. Yet to rewrite it without taking it out of its original context, and to write new music for a musical that has seen longstanding production is an outright risk. Luckily we are starved for more theatre, for fun Christmas traditions, and for colonial habits redeemed (even the slightest bit) from their original boxes, and this particular production turned out to be a very well calculated risk indeed. It excelled in all the spectacularity of drama, music, lights and composition we expect from Jehan’s work, and audiences went away thrilled.
Grand retelling of Dickens’ classic: Jehan Aloysius and his cast
The show began beautifully with an evocative prologue “Hope” sung by child actor Arali Pieris as Fran alongside another child actor Kevin Lawson as Tiny Tim. It is no easy task to open a major musical with a solo, and the young actor delivered with remarkable skill and confidence. The piece set the stage for Jehan’s version of the story – the one which is not so much about the old (white) man, but about the children, the disabled, the poor and all those marginalized people that Christmas is supposed to be about.
Dion Nanayakkara as the Young Scrooge and Rachel Hettiarachchi as his fiancee Isabelle made a gorgeous delivery of “Together”. They traversed the spectrum of gentle and strong vocal delivery with grace, showing off their skill while at the same time drawing the audience completely in at this climax of the first half of the show.
The depth and breadth of the scoring and direction reached its peak with the song “Where does love belong,” a duet between Jehan Aloysius as Scrooge and Dion Nanayakkara as the Young Scrooge. The ease with which the mentor and protege brought their voices and emotional wavelengths together lifted this piece to probably the best of the show.
Arjuna Wignaraja and his glittering green robe then took the production straight out of Victorian England to anywhere-you-would, flipping the show on its head with the arrival of the Ghost of Christmas Present. And this review would be sorely lacking if special mention was not made of his rickshaw-puller Raja, played by Ashvin Joshua. Ashvin epitomised the versatility of the cast in his playing of the silent and practically invisible Ghost of Christmas Future, the prim and gallant Dick Wilkins, and the servile yet flamboyant Raja flexing his ‘pecs’ in a red loin cloth and turban to uproarious laughter.
Last but not least, Jehan himself played Ebenezer Scrooge most nostalgically. In what seems a fitting portrayal, the writer/director played the “lead” role in an uncharacteristically muted fashion, allowing those at the “margins” of the story to shine, reaffirming the change of priorities established at the opening of the show.
If one must find a bone to pick, it would be that CentreStage productions are marked by a stylistic choice to hyper-dramatize. While it is what we are familiar with, at times one wonders whether a subtler delivery may have worked better for this show – particularly because Dickens’ tale is a Christmas staple and can appeal to as wide an audience as English theatre can reach in this city and beyond. It is possible that some of the energy used to bring larger-than-life delivery may be better utilized towards deeper and more nuanced character portrayal and development.
The costuming of the Ghost of Christmas past by Vishan Gunewardena must be made special mention of. Her glowing wings (an alternative placement of the glowing head of the original novella) with attached lights created an interesting nuance of character, making her at times warm and at times eerie. In harmony with Thushan Dias’ hung lamps and pin-prick lights at the back of an otherwise dimly-lit stage, this costume created a most enchanting effect.
While Dion delivered beautifully in the earlier scenes, it was in the cemetery as a gravedigger that he truly shone in terms of a nuanced vocal and physical delivery. And Sean Amarasekara too, who featured prominently in the entire production as Bob Cratchitt and Mr. Fezziwig, seemed to find his moment to truly glow in this same scene, mourning the death of Tiny Tim. It seems this is where the writer/composer/director Jehan was most invested, because it is here that the audience was finally silenced, considering the plight of Tiny Tim and his family. And indeed this is where the true spirit of Christmas ought to be invested – particularly for us in Sri Lanka, this year.
Jehan always undertakes monumental tasks. To successfully deliver one of the world’s best loved Christmas stories in an original production, and to create a show that this audience will want to see year after year to ring the season in, is truly a praiseworthy achievement. And just like a good figgy pudding, we expect this production will become an annual tradition for theatre-goers over the years, and that it will only get better with time.
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