HILARY FANNINreviews A Christmas Carolat Dublin's Gate Theatre

"I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me." So wrote Charles Dickens in December of 1843 when he published his new work, A Christmas Carol. Now, four years after its original production at the Gate Theatre, this lingering melodrama, in the late John Mortimer's stage adaptation, has come back to haunt us.

Alan Stanford’s production is faithful to Dickens’s gently stated aspiration, resulting in a splendidly entertaining evening that is neither too bitterly mired in injustice and avarice, nor too sweetly sentimental. Scrooge’s revelatory journey alongside the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future is pacy, humorous and highly engaging, and the action is wonderfully served by Bruno Schwengl’s ethereal set and James McConnell’s lighting design, which allows the play to float beyond the strictures of the proscenium and take on a magical life of its own.

Central to this satisfying seasonal outing is a strong acting ensemble whose musicality, under the directorship of Paul Keenan, infuses the piece, inviting the audience, who had braved the freezing streets to pack out the auditorium, to warm themselves in front of a reassuringly just and traditional tale.

Barry McGovern's brusquely irritable Scrooge and Stephen Brennan's balletic Ghost of Christmas Past, not to mention his twinkle-toed Ghost of Christmas Present (a dab hand with the fairy dust), are a joy. At times the stage reverberates with energetic children in floppy caps and scratchy smocks, and of course there is tremulous Tiny Tim, whose plucky rendition of Silent Nightdrew a collective sigh of appreciation.

"That was sogood," said my eight-year-old son as we left the buzzing auditorium.

A gracious threshold to the festive season, this is one production that could make merry gentlemen of any wintry audience.

Until Jan 9