Company: Masque Players
Venue: Kesgrave Community Hall
This review first appeared on the OneSuffolk website
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| Reg Balmforth as Ebeneezer Scrooge |
The festive season has truly begun with Masque Players’ production
of Shaun Sutton’s A Christmas Carol, based of course on Charles
Dickens’ classic work.
A sell-out audience revelled in an early taste of things to come with Dickens’ enduring tale of lost joy and ultimate redemption.
Reg Balmforth is a more aggressive Ebenezer Scrooge than we’re used to seeing and sometimes his quieter moments are best; however, the performance is a respectable one and interactions with other characters highly enjoyable. Unfortunately, this script doesn’t give us the opportunity to witness Scrooge’s downward spiral to where we find him at the beginning of the play and, without this insight into his early life, the character is a little two-dimensional to begin with.
As the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet To Come respectively, Sonia Mermagen, Ian Quickfall, and Sharon Sturman excel, as does Gary Sharman as the ghostly Jacob Marley. In a more technical production, I would have liked to have seen something more elaborate done to separate these characters from the living world, but a series of tinted lights worked well in this case.
A splendid cast of junior performers do what children do and upstage their adult counterparts wonderfully, adding to the seasonal ambience, without so much as a hint of first night nerves.
With a cast of 24 to wrangle, it was a big ask for a novice director but Matt Girt has tackled it admirably.
David Street’s multipurpose set is simple and its split level used effectively.
Issues of lighting marred occasionally, as did first night jitters affecting pace. Scene changes were sometimes clunky and detracted but the audience took this in its stride as the strain of Christmas carols wafted from backstage to cover the gaps. Might the carol singers have been brought forward in front of the curtain on such occasions? Probably. Overall, though, a success for Masque Players, who have now been performing for over 60 years.
A Christmas Carol runs at the Kesgrave Community Hall until Saturday, November 28.
PAUL COUCH
A sell-out audience revelled in an early taste of things to come with Dickens’ enduring tale of lost joy and ultimate redemption.
Reg Balmforth is a more aggressive Ebenezer Scrooge than we’re used to seeing and sometimes his quieter moments are best; however, the performance is a respectable one and interactions with other characters highly enjoyable. Unfortunately, this script doesn’t give us the opportunity to witness Scrooge’s downward spiral to where we find him at the beginning of the play and, without this insight into his early life, the character is a little two-dimensional to begin with.
As the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet To Come respectively, Sonia Mermagen, Ian Quickfall, and Sharon Sturman excel, as does Gary Sharman as the ghostly Jacob Marley. In a more technical production, I would have liked to have seen something more elaborate done to separate these characters from the living world, but a series of tinted lights worked well in this case.
A splendid cast of junior performers do what children do and upstage their adult counterparts wonderfully, adding to the seasonal ambience, without so much as a hint of first night nerves.
With a cast of 24 to wrangle, it was a big ask for a novice director but Matt Girt has tackled it admirably.
David Street’s multipurpose set is simple and its split level used effectively.
Issues of lighting marred occasionally, as did first night jitters affecting pace. Scene changes were sometimes clunky and detracted but the audience took this in its stride as the strain of Christmas carols wafted from backstage to cover the gaps. Might the carol singers have been brought forward in front of the curtain on such occasions? Probably. Overall, though, a success for Masque Players, who have now been performing for over 60 years.
A Christmas Carol runs at the Kesgrave Community Hall until Saturday, November 28.
PAUL COUCH
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