‘A wonder to behold’  Telegraph   ‘A joyful, bravura piece of stagecraft’  London Evening Standard      

‘A magical revival’  The Times

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My eldest grandson Freddie (9) is showing an interest in theatre, which is wonderful, and a few weeks’ ago I promised to find out what was on at Christmas. When I saw A Christmas Carol was at The Old Vic, it seemed ideal: Dickens’ classic Christmas story, one of London’s oldest and most iconic theatres and conveniently situated barely a 5-minute walk away from Waterloo station, which a train takes us to in about 25 minutes from where we live.

I hadn’t realised at the time of booking that The Old Vic’s production of this adaptation of Dickens’ famous book has become ‘a beloved fixture of the London festive season since it premiered in 2017’ (Evening Standard), but the more I read, the more I realised I’d booked for something quite special. Even back in early September when I got our tickets, it was almost fully booked, and I ended up getting seats for a Friday evening as there weren’t many seats left that I could afford for matinées (top price seats are £155!), so an evening it was. Freddie has always been a night owl so a start of 7.00pm and finishing at 9.00pm wouldn’t be a problem, and with the easy journey, we’d be home by 10. I got us seats in the Baylis Circle (aka the Upper Circle) and explained to Freddie what was meant by ‘sitting up in the gods’ at the theatre, but we were near the front, the centre of second row, and it’s not actually that far up and the view was fantastic, especially being able to look down on all the action. And the action turned out to be gloriously magical.

As we walked into the auditorium to take our seats, a woman in Victorian dress offered us a warm mince pie. She was happy for me to take a photo of her and it was a delightful beginning to the evening. 

The play is performed in the round and the stage was the shape of a cross. Some seats were behind where the stage normally is and even on part of the stage itself. This enveloping feel was a promise of the show itself, where you were really made to feel part of all that was going on. Musicians came on first and the music began, followed by dancing and singing. The audience started clapping and the actors waved to us, inviting us to join in. Then Scrooge arrived and the story unfolded.

I was pleased I’d read the story with Freddie in preparation for our visit because it was probably when I was about his age that I last read it! We both recognised that the narration was faithful to the book, with the same opening words. Written in 1843, A Christmas Carol has a strong autobiographical background, reflecting Dickens’ experience as a child when he was forced to leave school at the age of 12 when his father was sent to prison because of his debts. Charles’s mother and the youngest children had to live in the prison too, as happened at that time, while Charles was sent to board with a family friend and had to work in a factory. The plight of the poor, the social problems of the age, inform all Dickens’ work and this is strongly apparent in A Christmas Carol, and he shows great compassion for his characters. Sadly, while the book is 180 years old, the challenges of today’s poor remain. At the end of the show, actor John Simm, now himself rather than Scrooge, tells the audience there are – shockingly – 14,000,000 living in poverty in UK and that there would be a collection for a local charity helping the poor in Waterloo on our way out.

Despite this sombre note, the show itself is delightfully uplifting and a real joy. The connection to the audience, the glorious singing and dancing, handbells playing Christmas carols, wonderful effects including ‘snow’ drifting down from the ceiling, and actors at one point standing amongst the audience to sing. As the curmudgeonly Scrooge is taught the value of kindness by the three ghosts, witnessing his past, his present and how his future will be if he doesn’t change his mean ways, to me the message is primarily one of kindness. We see the kindness of Scrooge’s nephew Fred despite his uncle’s miserable behaviour towards him; the kindness of Bob Cratchit despite Scrooge’s ill treatment of his clerk. And Scrooge finally learns that accepting the kindness of others is a wonderful thing and that being kind oneself brings greater happiness. When he starts being kind, Scrooge becomes happy. But there is also a message of self-responsibility: that while Scrooge would like to blame his mean ways on his father’s ill-treatment of him when he was young and his young love Belle not waiting for him when he decided that going off and making money was more important than staying with her, he’s taught that we always have a choice. We can choose to define ourselves by our experience or we can choose to move on and be the best we can be. Of course, help may be needed for seriously bad experiences, but a choice can be made to change things.

A Christmas Carol is on at The Old Vic until 4 January 2025. Only children older than 8.

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Before the show, we ate at Tas Restaurant in The Cut, the same road as the theatre. There are a number of choices of places to eat there but Tas has been a family favourite for years, even though I hadn’t been to one in a while (there are a few in London). I’d actually thought that maybe I should take Freddie to Franco Manca for pizza but it was his dad, my son Jonathan, who suggested that Freddie might enjoy Tas. I put the choice to the young man in question and yes, he’d like to try the Turkish restaurant.

I booked a table for 5.15 so we had plenty of time before the show began. As it happened, it was so cold and damp that we went in even earlier at 5pm; it wasn’t a day for wandering around and filling in time. Not surprisingly it was still quite empty, but whenever I’ve been before it’s been very busy, and sure enough, as time moved on other people started coming in.

There’d been no kids’ menu on the website so I’d discussed with Freddie that we have the 2-course Sahan Menu (£23). When we sat down, a kids’ menu was brought but by then we’d committed to the adult one and as Freddie enjoys his food and has a sophisticated appreciation of food, I thought he’d enjoy it more.

He certainly enjoyed the gorgeous ‘nibbles’ and bread that came with the menus. There’s no charge for these and they offered to bring more bread when we finished the first lot. Freddie liked this so much, and the dip, I had to remind him there were our mains to come! But I also said I’d look in my Turkish cookbook at home and see if I could find recipes for the bread and dip.

We decided to order two different starters and share them. We chose hummus and a feta cheese salad. It was all delicious, some pickled veg with the salad, and more of the gorgeous bread.

Freddie’s choice of main was a chicken kebab which came with couscous and some salad. He likes to take the photos of his own food now, so this is his photo.

I chose lamb kofte. I suggested we swap a couple of pieces of meat so we each had some of both, as we’d do at home when we barbecue, and Freddie liked this idea. So we got to try both the chicken and the lamb and they were very good!

I was too full to want a dessert but Freddie said he’d like some ice cream (2 flavours for £7.45) and we ending up sharing it – some delicious strawberry and pistachio ice cream – mainly because it was a large adult portion! I also had an espresso (£2.95).

Freddie had a tonic water (£3.50) as his drink – the waiter was a bit surprised but I said he liked it a lot (and only gets it as a treat occasionally) and I ordered a glass of the house white (175ml, £7.25).

It was a lovely meal, the staff were all friendly and helpful, which always makes a difference. The bill with service came to £77.35. Then it was just a short walk to the other end of The Cut and The Old Vic for what was a fabulous show making the whole evening very special and wonderful.