A Christmas Carol. Northern Ballet. Theatre Royal, Nottingham. 26-30 November 2024 and Leeds Grand Theatre 17 December 2024 – 04 January 2025, 5✩✩✩✩✩. Review: William Ruff.

Photo credit: Emily Nuttall.

A Christmas Carol. Northern Ballet. Theatre Royal, Nottingham. 26-30 November 2024 and  Leeds Grand Theatre 17 December 2024 – 04 January 2025,

5✩✩✩✩✩. Review: William Ruff.

“A production bursting with feel-good factor.”

Like a Victorian Christmas goose Northern ballet’s version of Dickens’ festive classic is stuffed with good things, bursting at the seams with feel-good factor.  However, it’s also quite scary – and that’s just as it should be.  Scrooge only becomes a better human being by being given the shock of his life, so parents of very young children need to get in some anti-ghost therapy before their offspring catch sight of Old Marley or The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

It doesn’t matter what you do to A Christmas Carol, it still comes up fresh every year.  Ever since Dickens’ day, Mr Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and the rest found themselves transformed into toby jugs, figurines, playing cards, films, musicals, stage plays.  And, of course, ballets.  And there is one spectacular way in which ballet triumphs.  For most of the time Scrooge (Jonathan Hanks) is kept earth-bound by his love of money. When he finally sees the error of his ways, he is suddenly liberated and he erupts into the sort of joyous gravity-defying dancing which makes you want to cheer.

The stage picture is always beautiful.  Lez Brotherton’s two-tier set not only conjures up Dickens’ world of lamplit streets, burial ground, Scrooge’s office, Bob Cratchit’s family home etc – but its construction is so ingenious that one scene melts into another almost without one noticing.  Just one example: Scrooge’s bed is suddenly transformed into his tomb, a moment which makes the audience gasp.  The set also makes us confront one of Dickens’ central concerns: the deep divide between rich and poor in his society.  The vibrant colours and social glitter of the haves contrast starkly with the grey rags of the poor. 

Ballet purists should perhaps note that there is more to this production than dance.  Old Marley’s ghost speaks (a very scary moment) and there is onstage carol-singing both by the whole company and (heart-meltingly) by Tiny Tim (Cillian Starr).  There is also some panto-style comedy.  So if you’re looking for a Christmas show to please everyone’s tastes, this could be the one to fit the bill.

Despite all the delicious ingredients (including Carl Davis’s delightfully apt and festive score), it’s a dance show first and last: the spooky ghosts, all the individual characters from past, present and future – and the many group dances which so please the eye and lift the spirit.  Jonathan Hanks is a splendid Scrooge as he progresses from bony, finger-pointing old miser to the joyfully pirouetting life-enhancer he becomes. And Harris Beattie expresses all the fine detail of Bob Cratchit’s character.  But this is very much an ensemble production.

In short Northern Ballet make A Christmas Carol a magical, nostalgic trip to a more innocent world before the electronic complications of modern life.  It’s also a reminder that, if life has any meaning at all, it is that living for others rather than oneself is what it’s all about.  If only Northern Ballet’s production could be gift-wrapped and left under the Christmas tree.

Scrooge Jonathan Hanks, Young Scrooge George Liang, Nephew Jun Ishii, Nephew's wife Sarah Chun, Marley Andrew Tomlinson, Ghost of Christmas Past Saeka Shirai, Ghost of Christmas Present Harry Skoupas, Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come Andrew Tomlinson, Bob Cratchit Harris Beattie, Mrs Cratchit Harriet Marden, Cratchit Children: Julie Nunès, Sena Kitano, Albert González Orts. Tiny Tim Cillian Starr, Mr Fezziwig Bruno Serraclara, Mrs Fezziwig Amber Lewis Belle Dominique Larose, Fiddler Kevin Poeung.

Christmas Shoppers, Phantoms, Cornhill Slide, Party Guests, Tavern Drinkers, Hags: Aerys Merrill, Alessia Petrosino, Alessandra Bramante, Helen Bogatch, Mayuko Iwanaga, Nida Aydinoğlu, Gemma Coutts, Kaho Masumoto, Rachael Gillespie, Antoni Cañellas Artigues, Jackson Dwyer, Stefano Varalta, Yu Wakizuka, Archie Sherman, Filippo Di Vilio  

Children: Gedling Ballet School

Directed and Devised by Christopher Gable CBE

Choreographer Massimo Moricone

Production Design Lez Brotherston OBE

Music Carl Davis

Lighting Designer Paul Pyant

Tour Lighting Alastair West