The Christmas play is a greatly anticipated Basement tradition, combining a volunteer cast on high rotate with loads of punny fun for a festive fundraiser.

This is an amusing village play where everybody in the village is a talented professional actor, up on stage showing off after only a couple of hours of rehearsal with in-demand director Sophie Roberts.  [More]

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You know the silly season must be upon us when you find yourself thinking: “for the love of baby Jesus, not another Christmas Carol adaptation”. Dickens’ morality tale has been trotted out so many times that you’d think they’d be no bah-humbing curmudgeons still left to heed the message. What is there left to say? 

Nothing really, but this Christmas, push past any Carol fatigue and fill your heart with the joys of A Christmas Carol, Basement style. What other version has a mad-butcher, a time-travelling suffragette, a mutant corn, and an entire children’s choir? [More]

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Dickens’ most well-known and cherished story is given a very specific, modernised re-telling in this unique, fun presentation that brings together many well-known local celebrities and actors.

Ebenezer Scrooge (Gareth Williams) is a penny pinching curmudgeon, presenting cheap knock-off Christmas hampers to the world, using cut priced meat cuts, while over-working and under-paying his sole staff member Bobbi Cratchitt (Bree Peters). 

Faced with insurmountable debt and a son with every disease under the sun, Cratchitt tries to keep a shiny disposition through all of the hardship.  The Ghost of the Mad Butcher soon comes knocking on Scrooge’s door to show him the error of his ways, followed by the ghosts of Past Kate Sheppard, Current (Affairs) and Future Corn to frighten him into changing his ways … 

That’s how the story usually goes, right? 

Writers Nic Sampson and Barnaby Frederic cleverly thread heaps of pop-culture and news references (both specifically localised and more internationally generalised) through a somewhat traditional but off-kilter retelling of this well-known story.  The script is very talky, but cracks along at breakneck speed, laced with irony a-plenty, but never once feeling forced or over indulgent in the comedy. 

They even manage to inject some significant political satire into the mix through the personas of the three main ghosts and it falls into some major surrealism, akin to The Mighty Boosh, at some points, giving the evening a completely mad anarchic tone. 

The cast is huge for a show at Tbe Basement and is rotated amongst many throughout the season: each night is a new configuration of actors, comedians and celebrities.  The show is guaranteed never to be quite the same each night and always feels like an opening night.  Everyone seemed pretty well-rehearsed and polished when I saw it, aside from the odd corpse or line flubb, so it is great that everyone up there is throwing themselves so enthusiastically at this script throughout the season purely for our enjoyment.

Gareth Williams holds it all together as Scrooge; fierce, grumpy, lanky and just a bit over-sweary.  He’s on stage pretty much the entire time, barely seems to break a sweat and appears to be having a great time with this huge character role.  He certainly knows how to fill the space and then some with his presence and vocal strength. 

As Bobbi Cratchitt, Bree Peters captures an over-emotional vulnerability from years of taking the short end of the stick.  She capably supports Williams in their expositional scenes, is a great foil to the comedy created by the rest of the cast and has a terrific clear singing voice for the various musical numbers. 

Simon Coleman’s set is a jumble of boxes and various old detritus, to reflect the mustiness of the source story and conceal various props and reveals.  It is all pushed as far back to the lengthways wall as possible and wrapped around the top end of the space to allow as much space to fit audience at tables as possible while representing various locales. 

The rostra staging almost looks as if it’s not going to be enough space for all of the performers, but manages to fit everyone for vigorous musical numbers as well as allowing for historically accurate hoop skirts, a wheelchair and a giant anthropomorphic corn cob.  Swift, effective lighting design (Amber Molloy) certainly helps to keep it all contained and flowing. 

If you’re looking for a good giggle this holiday season, take a group of friends or workmates along to this with a few drinks from the bar in your belly and you’ll be in for a guaranteed good time.  Even the Scrooges in the audience will enjoy themselves with this!

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