Squid Game, James Bond to appear in Hong Kong theatre group’s A Christmas Carol, ‘unfaithfully’ adapted from Charles Dickens’ classic tale
- A Christmas Carol is given a new twist in Sweet and Sour Productions’ version of the popular festive play, showing at Fringe Underground Theatre
- The show is filled with life, laughter and Christmas spirit, though actress Onnie Chan’s turn as an angry, tormented Tiny Tim will leave you with goosebumps
Squid Game, James Bond and a Scottish rum-loving granny – three things you wouldn’t have expected to make an appearance in A Christmas Carol, but the team at Hong Kong’s Sweet and Sour Productions have managed to weave them into Charles Dickens’ ever-popular festive play.
For four nights starting December 1, the Fringe Underground Theatre will be showcasing this new production “unfaithfully” adapted and directed by Candice Gourlay Moore.
“A Christmas Carol is meant to be just a bit of fun with a twist on tradition,” says Moore, who has been involved in Hong Kong theatre for 18 years and founded Sweet and Sour Productions in 2011.
Moore’s version stays true to the original story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a stingy, mean-spirited and solitary businessman in London, employer of the underpaid Bob Cratchit, who is visited by Christmas past, present and future and shown the error of his ways.
But in this version, Tiny Tim is not the sweet, innocent boy in the original but rather an angry, tormented thief, stricken by poverty who is left injured after a street fight. Actress Onnie Chan, founder and director of the immersive theatre group Banana Effect, gives a chilling performance that will leave you with goosebumps.
Moore’s wife, Jacqueline Gourlay Moore, is a stand-out for effortlessly switching between Fan (Scrooge’s sister), Belle (the love of young Scrooge) and all three ghosts of past, present and future.
