Headlines
A Christmas Carol, as told by Jacob Marley (deceased)
Christmas 2009 at Hereford Sixth Form College
19th January 2010
The College held a service of Nine Lessons and Carols at Holy Trinity Church, Whitecross Road on Friday, 11th of December. It began with a candlelight procession and Elizabeth Alexander singing Once in Royal David’s City. Head of Music, Aryan Arji conducted the College choir of students and staff which filled the church with a wonderful rich choral sound. Hereford Cathedral organ scholar, Jeremy Cole, accompanied the choir and congregation and his performance of Bach’s In Dulci Jubilo organ voluntary was superb. The lessons were read beautifully and the whole service succeeded in creating a much needed thoughtful interlude to counterbalance the busy run up to Christmas.
The final day of term began with the choir, dressed as Victorian Christmas carolers singing through the corridors of the college. This set the scene for a special performance of A Christmas Carol, as told by Jacob Marley (deceased). James Hyland’s adaptation of Dickens’ classic tale of three ghosts scaring the humbug out of Ebenezer Scrooge—was told by Hyland with astonishing dynamism and simplicity to a packed out PAC.
The audience was gripped from the moment the chained corpse of Jacob Marley dragged himself on the stage and stared into the audience with colourless eyes. Hyland's deathly grey makeup and costume gave him an otherworldly look. As the action unfolded, Hyland transformed himself into the many strange and wonderful characters found in Dickens’ ghostly tale. His only prop was a chair.
As Scrooge, Hyland was spot on, capturing his stiff, shut-off physicality whilst making us painfully aware of the moments when Scrooge is unexpectedly immersed in long-forgotten feelings of joy, friendship and love. The Ghosts were great fun; Christmas Past appeared as a strange, croaky, shrunken figure, while Christmas Present was wonderfully large and jolly. The most frightening spirit – of Christmas Yet To Come – was wisely left to one’s imagination allowing the horror on Scrooge’s face to tell the story.
The combined creative forces of director Hugh Allison, costume designer Nicki Martin-Harper and sound designer Chris Warner enabled Hyland to do what Christmas itself does: make an old tale new. Hyland left us with the tale’s familiar message of renewed hope as Marley’s chains rattled the story to an end.