Of all the
Christmas Carols I have seen this season – this was my fifth – Jack Thorne's adaptation takes the story furthest away from Charles Dickens, providing both different motivation and more generic emotion. In Thorne's hands the story shifts from being one about the awakening of compassion and empathy, into one about the healing power of love: Scrooge's willingness to accept that others may love him unlocks his ability to love the world.
It's a very 21st century take on the classic, and one which has provided the Old Vic with a hugely popular Christmas show that is returning to the stage for the fourth year, but this time as part of the theatre's In Camera season where the show is performed live but streamed digitally to an audience around the world. The decision not even to attempt a live audience has proved a very canny one; unlike all those organisations plunged into chaos by the sudden imposition of Tier 3 measures, the Old Vic's plans for a run of digital screenings available until December 24 are unaffected.