A Christmas Carol

THERE'S plenty of festive spirit in the magical production of A Christmas Carol at The Rose Theatre. The Charles Dickens favourite got the Nonentities treatment and the full house were eager with anticipation as the curtain rose.

Stephen Downing was fantastic as bitter old Ebenezer Scrooge who shouted "Bah Humbug" for all it was worth and refused to show any goodwill towards his loyal employee Bob Cratchitt played by James Stevens or any of the other townsfolk. To show him the errors of his ways he's visited by the three eerie ghosts - the Spirit of Christmas Past (Iris Widdowson), the jolly Spirit of Christmas Present (Robert Graham) and the scary Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come (Tom Oakley).

The action was interpersed with traditional carols including Silent Night accompanied by a talented keyboard player and the cast seeming to be enjoying themselves. Special effects such as the ghostly appearance of the face of Scrooge's old partner Jacob Marley and colourful costumes also added to the magic.

There will lots of younger faces in the cast from the youth theatre group including Greg Botham who played Tiny Tim, Grace Hinks who was Belinda and Alex Powell as the Boy, who all deserve some praise for their performances.

By the sound of the applause at the end of the show the audience seemed to have enjoyed every minute of this seasonal tale.

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