John Ullyatt in A Christmas Carol, Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price,

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

The grand tradition of the Citadel’s A Christmas Carol (without which the “hap-happiest season of all” in these parts can’t really get off the ground), is up and running. And with it, in this the fifth iteration of David van Belle’s clever post-World War II adaptation, John Ullyatt returns to the role of the man who has closed every door to human connection.

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In his second year as Ebenezer Scrooge, you’ll be struck again by a splendid performance that has added real weight to Daryl Cloran’s big, handsome, music-filled, lavishly costumed production, with its cast of three dozen, its live band (led by Steven Greenfield), and its secular songbook. Compellingly, Ullyatt finds the startling juxtaposition of the frozen soul and the energetic fury that surrounds it. Watching again, you see the bruising, and the inner wince, that make the character so memorable as he’s flung back into his own past — a boyhood of poverty and neglect and a gradual hardening of the emotional arteries.

And the way this substantial performance excavates layers makes Scrooge’s discovery, his re-discovery, of a self long-immolated, makes the Christmas morning scenes particularly joyful and fun. He has a lifetime of using “consequences” as a weapon. After he comes to know the “consequences” in human misery of his brutal misanthropy, the concept has been re-invented in the happiest of ways.

A Christmas Carol, Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price.

Van Belle’s version of Dickens’ 1843 ghost story relocates the tale of last-minute redemption on Christmas Eve ahead a century and across the Atlantic, with music to match. Mr. Scrooge is the flinty proprietor of Marley’s department store, an immoveable devoté of the bottom line and career enemy to anything with a whiff of welfare about it. Needless to say the employees aren’t unionized, and there’s no such thing as health benefits. Stat holidays? Ha!

Patricia Zentilli, Elias Martin in A Christmas Carol. Photo by Nanc Price.

Mrs. Cratchit (Patricia Zentilli), the much put-upon store manager whose first name is never used by the boss, is a war widow and single mom working hard and struggling to make ends meet. And while the stakes aren’t life and death by starvation in same way as Dickens’ original attack on the viciousness of Victorian capitalism, the inequities do speak to our moment of souls lost in the ever-widening crevice between the haves and the have-nots. Zentilli sings the wistful “have yourself a merry little Christmas,” and the operative word is “little.” Elias Martin is, again, adorable as the youngest, at-risk, Cratchit.

In COVID-ian times, the lyrics to that song (“some day soon we all will be together, if the fates allow/ Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow”) especially spoke volumes. What stood out for me even more forcefully in 2023? The image of the two children that the Ghost of Christmas Present (Jesse Gervais) leaves with Scrooge. Want and Ignorance, are scarier than ever now, the offspring of affluence, not poverty, in van Belle’s adaptation.

Want, the girl, is a creature of infinite appetite for acquiring more, and more. Ignorance, the boy, is armed and vicious. As the Ghost says, he’s had “every advantage, except the knowledge of his responsibility to others.” More than ever the world had given us occasion to appreciate the apt wit of this thought in van Belle’s adaptation.

Ruth Alexander, Daniela Fernandez, Braden Dowler-Coltman, Julien Arnold, A Christmas Carol, Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price.

Performances from Braden Dowler-Coltman and Daniela Fernandez as the young Scrooge and his plucky fiancée Belle are again affectingly committed. “Be who you want to be,” the latter says to him, sadly, giving him back his ring and closing the door on their prospects together. The Fezziwigs, Julien Arnold (in an amusing red wig you’ll never get enough of) and Ruth Alexander, return to their roles in a delightful way. And so do Oscar Derkx and Patricia Cerra as effervescent Scrooge’s nephew Fred and his wife.

Among the changes in the cast this year, Gervais has made the role of the ebullient, showbiz-savvy Ghost of Christmas Present his own; his good nature is cut with something tart and knowing, an edge that is funny and sharp. “Wait’ll you get a load of this!”

Jesse Gervais and John Ullyatt, A Christmas Carol. Photo by Nanc Price.

Kudos again to Cory Sincennes’ set, dominated by the fateful clock, and the revolving door at Marley’s through which characters arrive and leave. And Leigh Ann Vardy’s lighting has huge dramatic impact in this indelible ghost story. What continues to go amiss is a sound mix, on behalf of the band, that’s rather obtrusively loud and forward; it’s not always easy to make out the lyrics.

There’s a very funny moment near the end when a small boy frustrated by his low-tech Christmas present, a hula hoop, discovers finally how to make it work, with a little bodily skill. The audience cheers. And Mr. Scrooge picks it up, and has a twirl or two as well. It’s nostalgic and forward-looking at the same time, a telling way to launch the festive season.

Just like this beautiful Citadel show itself.

REVIEW

A Christmas Carol

Theatre: Citadel

Adapted by: David van Belle from the Charles Dickens novella

Directed by: Daryl Cloran

Starring: John Ullyatt, Patricia Zentilli, Elias Martin, Emmy Richardson, Oscar Derkx, Patricia Cerra, Braydon Dowler-Coltman, Daniela Fernandez, Maya Baker, Julien Arnold, Ruth Alexander, Jesse Gervais, Gianna Vacirca

Running: through Dec, 23

Tickets: citadeltheatre.com, 780-425-1820