Mitch Benn - A Christmas Carol @ MacArts

Often I see interesting events promoted online that incur additional costs in the form of trains and hotels. More often, I click, I read, I pout and then rid it from my mind with a sigh. But on this occasion, I was delighted that Mitch Benn was touring his one-man A Christmas Carol play close by. No need for increasingly-expensive hotels or eye-watering train ticket prices, this time!

Not only was I looking forward to the performance, it would also be the first time attending MacArts since I saw The Upbeat Beatles in the summer and I do like to support grassroots music venues, so on a cold Monday evening I scarfed up and headed out to the converted church.

Artwork for the promo poster created by Happy Toast.

There was already a small queue when doors opened at 7pm. I'd seen Benn post earlier on social media that due to the increase in ticket purchases, the event had been moved from one of the smaller side rooms to the main area, which boded well.

There were rows of chairs in a semi-circle formation in front of the stage which contained a minimum of props: a coat-stand, a crate, and a lantern (battery-operated for safety reasons) - so I popped myself down in the second row as the seats began to fill around me.

When the lights went down, Benn's booming voice rang out in the darkness... but not from the stage. Instead, he walked down in the middle of the audience to begin the first of two acts.

Despite being known for his satirical songwriting, I was aware that this would be a serious performance. However, there was a good infusion of humour which helped make it such an entertaining evening. The script he was working from - and (top) hats off to him for remembering the entire thing without a stumble and also being consistent with the voices of the twenty-seven individual characters of the story - was Dickens' own travelling script which the author would use when touring the country giving readings of the Christmas tale (for an example, see the Doctor Who 2005 episode, The Unquiet Dead which features Simon Callow as the famous author).

I know it's not an original concept, but I love the idea of one person telling a story and assuming the role of each character, infusing them with their own voices and personality. Having not attended something similar before, I wasn't sure what I'd make of it. But with the mix of Dicken's words and Benn's damn good acting chops, I thought it was superb.

Just before the end of the twenty-minute interval, the performer came back on stage and took a few minutes to mention that a local charity of the venue's choice would benefit from the ticket sales, but that the audience could help him by purchasing some merchandise before leaving. Then, checking everyone was ready for Act Two, he launched straight into the second-half, back into the world of Ebeneezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim and the Spirits.

After the play ended, Benn stood near the exit as a good line of folk, myself included, lined up to buy some merchandise. When I got to the front of the queue, I commended him on his performance, and he remarked that MacArts was one of the bigger venues he'd performed A Christmas Carol in, as many London venues were tiny pubs. An exchange of 'Merry Christmas' was made, and I left with my purchases and wondering if a similar, although abridged performance (not necessarily by me) of my upcoming book, Jockula, would work onstage. Dear reader, I think it would.

The merchandise were two keyring / USB drives which contained some of Benn's work. One USB held Winnie The Pooh audiobooks he'd narrated (something my young nieces may be interested in hearing), and the other housed audios which included an unabridged reading of A Christmas Carol, a Christmas album (and lyric book) and a reading of one of his own short stories. I'll be delving into these over the festive season.

I believe Benn tours A Christmas Carol annually so do try to see it if you can. I hope he returns to MacArts again. Not only was it a cracking way to spend a cold winter's evening, it was also a good reminder of just how good a writer Dickens was.