The night began very well. OFS studio is a great little venue, where the stage is simply the ground in front of the first row of seats, and the set looks just like it did at one of those school plays you used to be involved with all those years ago.
The light's went up to reveal the infamous Ebenezer Scrooge angrily counting his pennies and making notes in his accounts log with a quill. His nephew appeared soon after to cause much bother by talking about the joys of Christmas time. The audience, including myself, knew exactly what was coming. But that didn't stop us all tittering with childlike glee when the venomous catchphrase was eventually barked by Scrooge; "Bah - Humbug!". Not much else was needed to make us all regress to a primordial state of mind for the rest of the evening! From then on, no matter what the standard of acting, I finally felt full of excitement at the prospect of Christmas being right around the corner. That's where the magic of the night came from if I'm totally honest. Scrooge really stole the show. His acting from the very beginning shone above the rest of the cast, although I did feel it dropped steadily in quality as the play went on. It was almost like they had rehearsed the first act to perfection, the second slightly less so, and so on... it was a real shame.
I really enjoyed the performance by the character Jacob Marley, Scrooge's deceased business partner who had died exactly 7 years previously. He appeared as a ghost; his feet chained and hands manacled, and he gave a brilliant performance of such power that he showered the front three rows in highly visible streams of saliva. I saw a few girls wipe their faces and I instantly felt very grateful for my fantastic fifth row vantage-point! But, Mr Jacob Marley, I do not wish to criticise this spittle drenching - I thought it was a great performance.
The night for me was of good quality acting juxtaposed against an Am-Dram supporting cast. Moments of terrific emotion, such as when a young Scrooge is kicked to the curb by his lady-lover for his developing obsession with cash, are quite often detracted from by sloppy scene changes and very long pauses. Overall though, the comments I overheard on the way out were very positive and if you're after that Christmas feeling then I recommend it as the ideal way to achieve it.
The light's went up to reveal the infamous Ebenezer Scrooge angrily counting his pennies and making notes in his accounts log with a quill. His nephew appeared soon after to cause much bother by talking about the joys of Christmas time. The audience, including myself, knew exactly what was coming. But that didn't stop us all tittering with childlike glee when the venomous catchphrase was eventually barked by Scrooge; "Bah - Humbug!". Not much else was needed to make us all regress to a primordial state of mind for the rest of the evening! From then on, no matter what the standard of acting, I finally felt full of excitement at the prospect of Christmas being right around the corner. That's where the magic of the night came from if I'm totally honest. Scrooge really stole the show. His acting from the very beginning shone above the rest of the cast, although I did feel it dropped steadily in quality as the play went on. It was almost like they had rehearsed the first act to perfection, the second slightly less so, and so on... it was a real shame.
I really enjoyed the performance by the character Jacob Marley, Scrooge's deceased business partner who had died exactly 7 years previously. He appeared as a ghost; his feet chained and hands manacled, and he gave a brilliant performance of such power that he showered the front three rows in highly visible streams of saliva. I saw a few girls wipe their faces and I instantly felt very grateful for my fantastic fifth row vantage-point! But, Mr Jacob Marley, I do not wish to criticise this spittle drenching - I thought it was a great performance.
The night for me was of good quality acting juxtaposed against an Am-Dram supporting cast. Moments of terrific emotion, such as when a young Scrooge is kicked to the curb by his lady-lover for his developing obsession with cash, are quite often detracted from by sloppy scene changes and very long pauses. Overall though, the comments I overheard on the way out were very positive and if you're after that Christmas feeling then I recommend it as the ideal way to achieve it.