A Christmas Carol
★★★★★ Ebenezer good
The Brunton at Loretto Theatre: Wed 18 Dec 2024– Sat 4 Jan 2025
Review by Martin Gray
Forget the nursery rhymes and fairy stories, The Brunton’s panto this year has a more adult source, being an adaptation of A Christmas Carol: Charles Dickens’s beloved tale of greed, ghosts and redemption.
Don’t expect Ebenezer Scrooge, mind – this old miser is a dastardly Dame, the owner of payday loan company Scrooge’s Speedy Cash. It’s Christmas Eve and the workers haven’t a lot to look forward to. One, little Greg, even gets sacked for the crime of being found with tinsel in his pocket..
Old skinflint Miss Scrooge REALLY hates Christmas. On the bright side, rival Johnny McGuffin is hiring, much to Miss Scrooge’s annoyance (‘How DARE you come in here and poach my Cratchitt!’).
That night Miss Scrooge is awoken from her sleep by four spectres – stepbrother Jacob, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.
You know the story. Like Shakespeare, A Christmas Carol is invulnerable: able to accommodate every approach – for straight interpretation all the way to the Muppets. So of course, a Panto land version can work.
Dame Supreme
And work it does. Brilliantly so in this production from Wonder Fools. The Brunton’s Dame Supreme, Graham Crammond, is back, playing his first baddie in Miss Scrooge, resplendent in the most glamorous blue Mac you ever did see. Flouncing around with gruesome glee, he delivers the dialogue of Robbie Gordon and Jack Nurse with his patented pizzazz and has a ball with the ad libs.

Graham Crammond and Robbie Gordon in Wonder Fool’s A Christmas Carol for The Brunton. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic
If Crammond wasn’t doing a great job he’d know about it, as Robbie Gordon is a co-star, mainly in the role of the most surprising Tiny Tim you ever did see. A gloriously appealing stage presence, he makes a great double act with sparky Rebekah Lumsden as Babs Cratchitt, Scrooge’s weirdly loyal serf-in-chief. Their quick-fire banter is tremendous, and they’re blessed with excellent, adaptable singing voices.
Laura Lovemore is a fantastically ‘can’t be bothered’ Ghost of Christmas Present, totally peed off with, well, everything and everyone, while Gordon (again!) and Michael Dylan channel a couple of iconic Eighties film characters as Past and Future. Dylan also handles the ghost of Marley, a delightfully grumpy, Irish cove, unable to utter a sentence without an insult appearing.
braying
While Scrooge is a rotten egg, the true villain of the piece is McGuffin, a braying Brexiteer right down to his Boris Johnson wig – Chloe-Ann Taylor has a ball as the murderous muffin-mad magnate and ensures we do too.
Four teams of young people alternate as the chorus and if they’re all as good as Group 4, who were on stage when Æ visited, you’re in for a treat. Enya Highett, Matilda Kingstree, Oran Patience, Freya Russell, Lily Mary Wallis and Mirren Egan bring bags of talent and fizz to Jennifer Galt’s pacy production, singing, dancing and even handling supporting parts.
The original novella of A Christmas Carol has an awful lot of incident and character moments, but the writers do an exceptional job of paring it down and projecting it through a panto lens. Director Jack Nurse finds a fine balance of dramatic moments to go along with the expected belly laughs. Keep an eye out for a couple of donkey fans from North Berwick – I’d love to see them back next year.
original songs
As well as pop favourites such as Nine to Five and Who Let the Dogs Out, we get some effective and affecting original songs by VanIves, such as the melancholy Winter Dreams and (I’m guessing the title here…) Can You Feel the Magic That is Christmas?

Graham Crammond and Laura Lovemore in Wonder Fool’s A Christmas Carol for The Brunton. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic
Audience participation hits a level not seen for years, with Robbie Gordon easily persuading those of us able to stand up to do the Time Warp again; plenty of booing and ‘behind yous’; and one lucky chap even getting married.
Jenny Booth’s set surprises with its sparseness and lack of panto cheerfulness, but it proves perfect for the play, with a clever use of glass that makes for ghostly entrances and exits, especially when combined with Benny Goodman’s lighting design. Booth also imagined the clever costumes – made by Queen Margaret University students – the best of which is the Ghost of Christmas Present’s must-be-seen-to-be-believed ensemble.
a triumph
This show has audience members grinning, laughing, answering back and singing from beginning to end. At the close of Dickens’s tale the reformed Scrooge wants a prize turkey; well, he isn’t going to find it at Loretto School – A Christmas Carol is a triumph.
Running time: Two hours and 10 minutes (including one interval)
The Brunton @ Loretto School, Loretto School Theatre, Millhill, Musselburgh. Phone booking: 0131 653 5245
Wed 18 Dec 2024 – Sat 4 Jan 2025
Daily (not 25/26, 1/2 Jan) Mats (not 19/20): 1.30pm.
Evenings: 7pm, except 5pm on Fri 20, Tue 24/31, Sat 28/4: 5pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Wonder Fools website: www.wonderfools.org

Rebekah Lumsden and Robbie Gordon in Wonder Fool’s A Christmas Carol for The Brunton. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic
ENDS