the play
Ben Scrooge is a slum lord in Camden, who besides being brilliant and witty is also hateful, bitter and closed in every way that a human can be. We see the worst in him in the early action of the play but soon find out, through the intervention of his dead wife’s spirit, that he carries with him a weight of pain and suffering. Ben’s wife Sophia gives him the gift of one last opportunity to face his pain and the choices he has made through the visits of three spirits. A journey ensues that takes the audience on an emotional roller coaster where Ben relives the joys and tragedies of his life and how his choices have profoundly affected the people around him.
The play also acts as a time machine that lets us visit Camden’s heyday in the 1940’s and 50’s when it was a beacon of modern success, to the riots in the 60’s and 70’s and up to the present day. Using archived and original film clips as well as Camden photography by local artist Jorge Shell, this unique production sucks the audience into the ether of time. Puppet artist and maker Elizabeth Hill terrorizes Scrooge with a story-high Grim Reaper and the music and sound design by Stefán Örn Arnarson makes it impossible to stay removed from the experience.
Director and Camden native Barry Moore and playwright, Sarah O’Neill, have carefully crafted a story that is remarkably faithful to the original text and characters, but answers the question of what Dickens’ social message would be if he were a living author today.
