A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens A Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre Production December 14-24 | Firehall Arts Centre| 280 E. Cordova Opening Night: Thursday, December 15 at 7:30pm 

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff

VANCOUVER – Renowned stage thespian Sanjay Talwar is a one-man show in the classic Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which is presented by The Firehall Arts Centre from Wednesday, December 14 to Saturday, December 24, 2022. 

Produced by Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre, all 40 characters in this one-man version of the familiar tale are performed by Stratford/Shaw stalwart Talwar for a whirlwind show that will make your heart twinkle. 

“I’m thrilled to be able to present a classic tale this holiday season,” says Artistic & Executive Producer Donna Spencer. “It’s one of my favourite stories and a wonderful reminder of what Christmas is all about. Sanjay Talwar’s performance is such a gift, and I hope Firehall audiences will revel in the warmth of this production.” 

The Victoria Times Colonist describes the play and Talwar’s performance in this manner: “Blue Bridge’s A Christmas Carol is a pure joy to watch…Talwar delivers much more than a simple reading. He portrays all the characters, making each one distinctive and memorable, nimbly navigating a number of accents. It is, above all, the laughter of relief. And we the audience chuckle along too, having taken a journey both wild and wonderful.” 

Talwar says the actual experience of performing A Christmas Carol alone is difficult to describe.

“When the cast is just me, there’s nobody to save you when it goes wrong,” he begins with a laugh. “It’s a real adventure in finding the moment and just trusting yourself. For me, I’m always looking for: Who do I get to play with? So it’s the audience or the technical aspects–it’s just finding whatever connections you can make, wherever they are. Because everything in theatre is dialogue….Every day that I do the story, it follows its own path, so in a strange way I feel in control of it, but not in control.

“I’ve had lots to say in the plays I’ve done before but never this much!” he adds. “But it’s funny: by creating these different characters it doesn’t feel like such a long monologue.”

For those who have seen any of the dozens of TV and movie adaptations of A Christmas Carol—whether that’s with Alistair Sim, Bill Murray, or The Muppets—it’s fun to return to the original material, Talwar says.

“Movies can’t do everything that’s in a book,” he explains. “I mean, everyone knows the story, but there are little details that will be new and surprising.”

He’s struck, time and again, by the rhythms of Dickens’s language and the way it flows. It turns out the author was as food-obsessed as most of us are during the holiday season: one passage that’s a true mouthful is the elaborate description of the Ghost of Christmas Present’s Yuletide-dish-bedecked throne.

“It’s one of the longer lists I’ve had to learn in any play, regardless of what’s going on around it,” Talwar says. “Oh boy, he describes almost every food you can imagine that feels Christmassy–you’re overstuffed on the list of food that the Ghost of Christmas Present is sitting on.” (The mountain of delectables includes “mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges” and “luscious pears”.) And yes, Talwar plays that ghost too.

Still, amid all the iconic characters he brings to life in the course of A Christmas Carol, Talwar believes the enduring power of the story comes back to one person.

“Why does this story work in such a timeless fashion when others come and go?” he says. “I think it’s the creation of this character of Scrooge: someone who has their eyes opened in different ways or has their hope restored or their faith renewed. It really does give you a map about why he is the way he is. He’s a bit of a monster, a bit of a tyrant, and you go,’This is probably why.’

“He’s a human being with all kinds of choices available to him and then, at the end of the day, he takes a leap of faith and says, ‘I’ll try.’” And there, Talwar may have hit upon the best way to describe what it is that he does when he embarks on this adventure each evening on stage: a leap of faith.   

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