If it wasn’t abundantly clear from the title, Ghosted: Another F***ing Christmas Carol is an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Unlike the version we recently caught at The Old Vic, however, this is far from a traditional take – and to be honest, we’re totally on board with that. Written and directed by the same creative team behind the hilarious Above the Stag pantos, this gender swapped and queer retelling sees Ebeneezer Scrooge become Eloisa Scrooge as she’s visited by the trio of fabulously camp ghosts showing her the error of her ways.
A talented cast of four actors play multiple roles as we take a look into the life of the world’s worst boss Scrooge, as we investigate her past, her present, and what the future will hold if she doesn’t change course. As you’d expect from the writers of the Above the Stag pantos the humour is largely very silly and sweary, and it’s a show full of innuendo, though we were occasionally caught off-guard with a witty social or political observation – we particularly enjoyed the ghost of Jacob Marley being re-imagined as Victorian ghoul Jacob Rees Marley.
In fact, it’s a show which dares to make a handful of surprisingly astute observations. With nods to the multiple crises of Christmas 2022 and worryingly overstretched food banks, it raises questions about whether many people are actually better off than their Victorian counterparts about whom the original book was written.
As you’d expect from A Christmas Carol, it’s a show full of music, with amusing takes on classic carols. We won’t spoil any of them but they’re genuinely pretty funny and our quartet of actors all have fine singing voices, with some gorgeous harmonies thrown in for good measure.
We thoroughly enjoyed this wonderfully camp and queer adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic text. It’s not big or clever – in fact it’s pretty small-scale and extremely silly – but it’s enjoyably daft all the same. It feels a cliche to say that this is as camp as Christmas but it really is – this quirky and creative take on the traditional tale is guaranteed to lighten up your festive season.
GAY TIMES gives Ghosted: Another F***ing Christmas Carol – 4/5
More information can be found here.
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