Has Charles Dickens’ charming little Christmas story become a cynical theatrical franchise? Mark Gatiss’s adaptation, first seen in 2021, is back at Nottingham Playhouse (and transfers to London later this month), this time with Keith Allen as the “tight-fisted” money-lender who finds salvation through three ghosts. Meanwhile, Jack Thorne’s version, at London’s Old Vic, has grown into a festive juggernaut boasting a starry alumni of Scrooges including Rhys Ifans, Andrew Lincoln and Paterson Joseph (this year it’s Christopher Eccleston) and is in its seventh year.
This concept, of a returning production with a revolving door of Scrooges, might be mistaken as a bankable, modern-day enterprise but perhaps it was ever thus. Published as a novella the week before Christmas in 1843, all first editions of the book were sold out by Christmas Eve. A year on, there were nine productions on stage. Dickens wrote numerous other festive stories but this one stuck.
