Viva Brighton Issue #82 December 2019

THEATRE
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A Christmas Carol
Dickens for today
“The more I read A Christmas Carol, the more relevant
it seems today,” says actor John O’Connor,
when we speak ahead of his Brighton performances
of Charles Dickens’ famous story. “The financial
crisis was created by bankers – by Scrooge – yet
the bill continues to be picked up by disabled people
– like Tiny Tim – who have had their benefits
taken away and are being punished for being sick
and unable to work.”
It’s a rather more impassioned response than
one might expect when asking about someone’s
motivation for making a Christmas show. But then
Dickens had similarly strong reasons for writing
the story back in 1843. As O’Connor points out,
it was a battle cry, penned in reaction to a report
the writer had read about the terrible effects of
the Industrial Revolution on children. “They were
being injured working, were homeless, were ill
from malnutrition. He was intending to write a
pamphlet, but he ended up writing A Christmas
Carol instead and it’s probably the most passionate
of all his works. It’s a story of redemption and
of community and a reminder that we all have a
responsibility to others.”
The story is also notable for being the first the
writer performed publicly, in locations including
Brighton’s Royal Pavilion. “Dickens was really the
first writer to perform his own work,” O’Connor
explains. “He’d wanted to be an actor from the age
of 20 and it was a way of marrying his desire to act
and his interest in communicating with his public.”
While his work lends itself to performance – “He
used to put mirrors up when he wrote so he could
stand and act out his characters before committing
Photo by David Bartholomew
them to paper” – there was no precedent then for
authors performing their work and no guarantee
the shows would be a success. But Dickens made
more money from the readings than from all of
his novels put together, some of which he used to
make donations to charities including Great Ormond
Street children’s hospital, which this current
production is also supporting.
It’s these apparently ‘mesmeric’ live outings that
O’Connor aims to recreate in his own performances,
taking place at the Old Courtroom this
month. “What I try to get across is the energy of
the man, and the fact that he managed this very
unusual feat of becoming the greatest reader of
our greatest writer... I want to transmit some of
that immediacy and that magic to modern audiences
so they almost feel they are there at one of
Dickens’ original performances.”
There are some limits to O’Connor’s commitment
to his character, however. He is yet to attempt the
writer’s pre-show diet, which apparently consisted
of two tablespoons of rum with cream for breakfast,
a pint of champagne for tea and a glass of
sherry with a raw egg mixed into it an hour before
he went on stage. “I keep saying I’m going to try it
but I think it will have to wait until the last night.”
Nione Meakin
The European Arts Company’s A Christmas Carol is
at The Old Courtroom from December 5th–7th
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