Yes, it is true that Dickens's over-familiar ghosts have haunted many theatrical Christmases past. Even this present Yuletide sees Patrick Stewart's solo take on mean geezer Ebenezer, so do we really need another trip through a troubled Christmas Eve? If it is as charming as this, the answer is unhesitatingly affirmative.
A keen, multi-tasking ensemble of 10 actor-musicians expertly negotiates the compact space of this smallest and newest central London venue. The only props are two clothes rails and a few tables and chairs, yet what a rich imaginative world director Alistair Green conjures up therefrom.
During a lovely initial couple of minutes, the actors rummage among the costumes, selecting various jackets and bonnets. This silent movement gives a magnificent sense of an important story about to unfold, a tale told simply so as to make its point forcefully.
Andrew MacBean's Scrooge could use a little more misanthropy, if only to counterbalance the unmitigated goodness of the rest of the music-making, merry-making festive tableaux. But Joanna Hickman turns her Tiny Tim into a pleasantly un-mawkish young fellow and Chris Courtenay's Bob Cratchit has just the pallor of a man who spends long hours in an unheated office.
If you are not moved by the redemptive final scene, in which Scrooge procures the prize turkey for the Cratchits, examine your own conscience before the witching hour of December 24.
Until 7 Jan. Info: 0870 060 6632.
A Christmas Carol
