The
Ghost of Christmas Present from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, published in 1843 (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty
"With every show, everyone has an idea of something they want to do and Aitor (Basari, another company member who plays Dickens himself, as well as the
Ghost of Christmas Present) really wanted to do something on a hoverboard.
The
ghost of Christmas present takes him to the Cratchett house where he finds the cheery Tiny Tim, who is crippled and if medical help does not happen soon, the child will die.
I love the fact that very naturalistic scenes, such as the Cratchit family having a very small Christmas lunch, can sit alongside something very epic like the flight that Scrooge goes on with The
Ghost of Christmas Present. It's properly theatrical and very exciting.
Danielle Henry plays The
Ghost of Christmas PresentGhost of Christmas Present, played by Mateja Govich, is about 15 feet tall, dressed in spooky robes, and warns Scrooge of what may happen if he doesn't learn kindness and love.
Caption: The
Ghost of Christmas Present appears to Scrooge in a 19th-century illustration from A Christmas Carol.
Adeel Akhtar plays a comic Bob Cratchit, cocooned in a natty knitwear balaclava; Keir Charles, a crazed Fezziwig, Irish jigging around the Christmas tree; and Samantha Spiro a one-woman cockney party as the
Ghost of Christmas Present. Pye's costumes are an eyeful, and the whole thing's as luscious as it is ludicrous.
Perhaps Aberdeen are the
ghost of Christmas present.
The most memorable single element, however, comes from designer and puppeteer Rachel Canning, who imagines the
Ghost of Christmas Present as a partly–disembodied floating skeleton, Christmas Past as a creepy child's doll and Christmas Future as a sinister pile of bones and rags which looms over the stage.
The lead roles included John Lamont as 'Scrooge',' William Cawdell as 'Jacob Marley',' Maya Waud as the 'Ghost of Christmas Past',' Imogen Dingle as the '
Ghost of Christmas present',' Adele Johnson as the 'Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come',' Jac Morgan as 'Bob Cratchit' and Megan Jones as 'Tiny Kim.'.
In a be-careful-what-you-wish-for moment, Scrooge asks the
Ghost of Christmas Present (an elegant, jovial, and thoughtful turn by Eric Rehm) to let him remain for 30 more minutes to watch a party that Fred and his wife, Millie (once again gracefully imparted by Laura DeGiacomo), are hosting.