A gamble won
It was never going to be other than excellent because Kilcullen Drama Group doesn't do the lesser thing. But A Christmas Carol was certainly a different offering from the group, and one heck of a gamble.
A gamble in the size and complexity of the production, as well as in taking on a classic Dickens instead of the usual strong drama or farce genres for which the group is best known.
It took vision, commitment, and a lot of hard work. It also required ingenuity in designing a set that could accommodate so many different locations and times and not impede the constant movement of characters and subsidiary storylines that are a feature of this particular tale.
It's a well known story: how the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is redeemed from his parsimony through encounters with spirits, of Christmases past, present and future. Charles Dickens wrote it as a moral tale, and it remains so today, but it is a story with an enormous range of richness and potential for character development.
Mischa Fekete's production mined that potential for all it was worth. But it is true to say that without the essential foundation of Kilcullen Drama Group members' talent and experience, it would have been very difficult to carry off.
That said, the breadth of the show provided us with the opportunity to see and hear much new talent, young and old, and to savour again some of the stalwarts of older days who haven't trod the local boards for some time.
From the very start we were thrown into the piece with one of the best stage graveyard scenes I've ever seen, and the device of narration which was to carry us through the movements and thoughts of many characters for the rest of the evening was immediately established.
There should have been four narrators, but Evelyn O'Sullivan had been taken ill the previous evening, so there were three in the performance under review. This, however, provided John Coleman with the opportunity to add another persona to the five he was already carrying.
Becoming one of a pair of charitable women looking for help from Scrooge, by the simple expedients of donning a bonnet and taking his voice to sopranic levels, gave us some unplanned moments of hilarity which even cracked up Bernard Berney's grumpiness in his portrayal of Scrooge.
(I managed to catch Evelyn's own performance the next evening, above, when she had thankfully returned to health, and the over-the-top interaction of herself and Ester Reddy when they were negotiating with Scrooge for a Christmas donation for their charity was a treat in expression and a splendid caricature of characters.)
Veteran player Dick Dunphy made just one appearance in this production, but it was an absolute tour de force when he appeared as the ghost of Scrooge's dead partner Jakob Marley, warning him of the ever-after which awaited him if he didn't change his ways.
Bound by the chains which he had forged for himself in life, by not thinking of the poor, it was a performance of truly terrifying strength, and one to scare any of us ill-prepared for the hereafter to rethink our lifestyle.
Like nobody else, Bernard Berney is a master of facial movement and timing, and it was his expressions throughout this production which illuminated the hidden complexities of Scrooge, especially his changes of mood as he was led through his past, present and future Christmases.
His 'guides' were an ethereal and mostly gentle Letitia Hanratty as Christmas Past, who nevertheless managed to scold at the right time.
Ray Donoghue's Christmas Present was both camp and serious, and socially telling when 'Want' and 'Ignorance' (below) appeared from under his robe, while Ryan Schoenberg's Christmas Future was a totally silent performance with a chillingly eloquent pointing finger.
Ray Donoghue's other portrayal, of the young apprentice Scrooge's mentor Fezziwig (above) who had taught all the important things about life which the miser was later to forget was a prime example of the contagious charismatic leading every party. As an actor, Ray is the 'spirit of Bill Malone', which will only mean something to the very old stagers here, but it is a compliment of the first order.
Scrooge's clerk, Bob Cratchitt, was Vivian Clarke at his best, immersing himself in his part to the point that we could almost shiver with him when he went back to his desk after Scrooge refused to give him an extra coal for his fire.
Almost every cast member shouldered at least two characters, and Ryan Schoenberg's mischievous exuberance shone through in his portrayal of Topper chasing the comely Eilish Philips (above), while Fergal Sloan excelled in multiple split personalities of priest, headmaster, pawnbroker (below), poulterer and businessman, as well as being in the chorus.
And perhaps this is the time to credit properly all the children in the production, who worked relays on alternate nights. They were invariably excellent, but the singular of the Tiny Tim for the night, Jack Dooley, deserves its own special mention.
Before I went in to the show, a friend said he wasn't interested in going because he 'hated musicals'. Well, this show wasn't actually a musical, but the chorus led by soloist Philomena Breslin (below) provided us with a number of seasonal songs which acted as bridges between times and events. They were essential to the stage production, yet didn't in any way intrude on the dramatics of the show.
Overall more than 60 people were involved, 26 adults on stage along with a similar number of children in those previously mentioned two 'teams'. (With that kind of participation, it is impossible to mention everybody in a report of this kind, and the omission of any names doesn't mean that those people were any less important or talented - ED.)
In the technicalities, Frank Mitchell managed to seamlessly integrate no less than 130 lighting cues and 35 sound effect elements throughout the performance.
There may have been times when lines were mislaid and movements clashed. But these are part of what brings amateur drama really close to the community in which it is performed, and whenever it happened the community on stage lifted back into place any momentarily weaker situations.
Bottom line, the gamble was played, and some 1,500 people who were fortunate enough to pick up the bet by buying tickets were the winners.
But then, we expected no less.
Brian Byrne.
(Pictures by Brian Byrne, Mischa Fekete, and Ger Kelly. More will be published during the next week)
A Christmas Carol: 2
