The Script

How does Bryony Lavery’s adaptation differ from other versions of the same story?
NF: What’s fantastic about Bryony’s adaptation is that she comes from a very truthful but also a very beautiful place. She writes in poetry, rather than in standard, typical lines.
PP: What’s great for an actor is that if you look at her text on the page her use of commas and spaces actually gives you a really intricate look at the way the character thinks and speaks.
NF: It’s like writing in thought isn’t it?
PP: Yes and it’s really helpful to the actor so it differs in that respect to many adaptations that just list whole passages from the book. What Bryony’s tried to do is highlight that Dickens himself had a really unhappy childhood and that’s reflected in his writing. Bryony has highlighted the psychological scarring that he took with him to his adulthood.

Did you research other versions of the story before you started work on this production?
NF: I watched a couple of movies but really all that mattered to me was A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol by Bryony and Jason [Carr, Composer and Lyricist]. There’s enough material there to keep you going for a long time.