Advertised the way it was, I was a little disappointed upon arrival at The Stoller Hall this afternoon, to find that this would be a music concert and not a theatrical performance. Rather than the actors performing scenes on stage as I had imagined they would, instead they simply stood in one long straight line at the front of the stage and read sections of Dickens' novel at the appropriate and appointed times in the score. The 'thrill' and 'excitement' factor for this being far less than it would have been had the actors at least have worn Victorian costume, learned their lines, and strutted about the stage interacting in some way or other.
My disappointment was further added to on hearing that the role of Ebenezer Scrooge would not be played by the advertised actor, Timothy West. Sadly he was 'unavailable' (I hope nothing too serious!), and a worthy last minute replacement in the form of Robert Daws had been found.
Speaking the required sections of the novel with Daws were 6 students of Manchester School Of Theatre, under the tutelage of David Shirley, who gave creditable variation to the London accented poor characters, with the upper class and straight narration being spoken in RP. It was a small concession to the 'acting' that I was expecting, and appreciated. It was however very difficult to keep up with the characters since each speaker played many roles as well as narrators and their changes sometimes were too quick for me. Daws' Scrooge too took a lovely character-arc from the miser and anti-Christmas persona through to his jolly and changed alter-ego.
Playing the music was The Chester Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Stephen Threlfall. Musically it was very classical [quasi-Romantic] and although very emotive and at times quite thrilling, it was not music that one would normally associate with either Christmas or The Scrooge story. Instead it was the kind of music one would expect to hear played by the Halle Orchestra on a Thursday Series concert. The orchestra is no stranger to the Stoller Hall, and they played brilliantly this afternoon.
The soundscape was further ameliorated by The Manchester Chamber Choir sitting in the choir gallery above the orchestra and numbering 9 men and 13 women. The musical was lyrical and harmonic, and their singing of it sounded lovely. Their enunciation and articulation superb.
Taking the whole event for what it was, a concert for orchestra, chamber choir and speakers by Neil Brand, it was excellently performed and, once I had got over my initial disappointments, I did actually enjoy the presentation greatly.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 15/12/18
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