One of the things that I’ve mourned the most during the COVID-19 pandemic is the loss of the live theatre that I use to frequent so often. I love everything about going to see a live show, especially the electric feeling in the air that’s alive between the patrons as we settle in to the venue. So, while in the midst of our new online and inside life, I heard that there was an online production of A Christmas Carol as a one-man show via Blue Bridge Theatre, and I wondered, “Could they possibly capture that electric feeling online?”
I was amazed, but yes, they can.
Sanjay Talwar is the sole actor in the play. If you are somehow unfamiliar with the plot of A Christmas Carol, it’s a classic Christmas story written by our dear friend Charles Dickens. Set in the mid-19th century, the plot revolves around Ebenezer Scrooge (Dickens is great at names), a mean, wealthy, old businessman. Early in the plot you realize that Scrooge got this rich by keeping all the money to himself and refusing to help anyone, even those actually loyal to him like his nephew, Fred, and his clerk, Bob Cratchit, who has to keep himself warm by putting his hands over the candle on his desk. This is a peek into how cheap Scrooge is—he won’t even buy coal to heat their office.
Cratchit has been Scrooge’s loyal employee for years, he has a large family, who are all good-natured and good-tempered, especially Tiny Tim, his youngest son, whose ailments could be cured… if the family only had the money.
Sounds corny, right? It’s not. It’s wonderful. I can’t spoil the plot any more, I can only say Talwar pulls it off with the ease of sipping a hot cider on a winter evening… A winter evening with ghosts, that is. Basically, he has memorized a book and made it so entertaining that I was dancing in my seat; I actually didn’t want it to end.
If you’re a lover of theatre, or of Dickens, or if you just want to do something different, I highly recommend checking this out. Thank you to director Jacob Richmond and, of course, Talwar for bringing a bit of the magic of live theatre into our homes during these unsure times.
A Christmas Carol
Various times and dates until Sunday, December 20
$21.25 and up, online-only
bluebridgetheatre.ca