Ebenezer Scrooge

Did you research any other representations of Scrooge to help you to perform the role?
PP: There’s an American publication called The Life and Times of Ebenezer Scrooge which looks at every single actor who’s played the role since the days of silent film and I had a look at some of the choices made by those actors. A lot of the time you see him played as quite a middle class, well to do gentleman. But he was taken out of school at a very young age, he never really finished his education and he went straight into business. His mother and sister both died at a very young age and for me they’re really important elements of his character which I wanted to investigate. So that’s why I’ve made the choices that I have. I think you should always do a good deal of research into any of your parts as an actor.

How would you describe Scrooge?
PP: He’s a lonely old man. He’s concerned with money because he really doesn’t want to be poor. Being poor means being inconvenienced and having to worry about how to feed yourself, where to sleep, who to spend your time with. His life has been a series of traumatic events which have turned him into who he is.

Why do you think people sympathise with Scrooge?
PP: Because he’s redeemable. Everybody that we come into contact with in life has a back story to them and the reason I think people sympathise with Scrooge is that they see his redemption on stage and they see him change. That’s what makes him watchable and interesting. He’s been living his life in the past but right at the end of the play he says “I will live in the past, the present and the future.” I think that’s key – we see that he decides from this moment onwards to live a different life from the one he’s chosen to live before.