Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is a timeless classic; its story of spiritual rebirth around the holidays continues to ring as true today as it did for the Victorians. But you’ve never seen “A Christmas Carol” told like this before! Invasion: Christmas Carol puts a wild improvisational spin on Dickens’ hallowed text, ensuring a night of laughs, haunts, and wassailing away with these incredible performers. Directed by Knifefight’s artistic director Jamie Cavanagh and beautifully adapted by Megan Leahy, Invasion: Christmas Carol needs to be added to your holiday theatre list.

The premise of Invasion: Christmas Carol is simple, the main cast is going to be performing Leahy’s adaptation of Dickens’ story, but every night there is an invited comedian who is there to shake things up. The cast doesn’t know who that person is going to be, or who they’ll be playing, until the night of the performance. This creates delightful chaos, as whatever that person chooses to be is not confined whatsoever within the bounds of the story. Truly, anything can happen when that person is on stage and it adds a surprising and hilarious twist to this heartfelt holiday standard.

For the performance which I attended on December 4, Kris Siddiqi was the guest invader and he was hilarious! He played DJ Daniel Dunningham (to be referred to by his full stage name only), although to be fair I think his last name changed ever so slightly every time it was uttered. This added such a fun and silly element to the story, as the idea of DJ’s and clubs in Victorian England is perfectly preposterous, and yet this became a central focus of the play: how Scrooge owed DJ Daniel Dunningham some “phat sick beats” and that’s why he’s there over the holidays, the fact that the two of them were in school to become DJs, and that Scrooge left Fezziwig’s to start a nightclub. I think my favourite thing was when DJ Daniel Dunningham would hand someone the mic, and they’d be so excited about their voices being amplified; they were keeping perfectly in character while going with the flow of the scene. Siddiqi himself was hysterical, keeping his cool DJ swagger and making up dope rhymes of his own throughout the show. He was an exceptionally chaotic addition to this show.

The cast of Invasion: Christmas Carol is ridiculously talented – they’ve gathered some of the best performers and improvisers and are letting them do their thing! Jamie Cavanagh leads the cast as Scrooge, and he gives a stirring performance. I imagine doing this show must feel a bit like Micheal Caine acting with the Muppets, where there’s chaos all around you and yet you’re supposed to be giving this life-affirming performance. But the few times where Siddiqi and the rest of the cast were able to break Cavanagh were some of the best. Richard Lam plays both Young Scrooge and Bob Cratchit, and he gives such heart to both roles. Paloma Nuñez is a truly terrifying Jacob Marley, and her ensemble roles were equally as funny. Liz Johnston plays a bevvy of characters, but I think my favourite was the Ghost of Christmas Past – she gives the character that breathy, high pitched voice we’ve all come to know and love and it’s perfect. Lucy Hill likewise plays several characters, and hands down my favourite is Tiny Tim. They have this tiny puppet body which makes Hill’s face into Tiny Tim’s face, but completely disproportionate to the tiny body. What’s more is that Hill ensures that the puppet’s physics are correct, so if no one’s holding onto Tiny Tim’s feet but Hill is standing up, she’ll yell out and start to fall over – it’s absolutely brilliant. Tim Blair is a jolly Ghost of Christmas Present and Fezziwig, and I now firmly hold that those roles should always be doubled; he carries the same vivacity through both. I also have to give a mention to musical director Dewi Minton who accompanies the show live, playing several instruments and is somehow always able to embody the spirit of the moment.

I truly hope that I can make Invasion: Christmas Carol a yearly tradition. I’ve grown up watching just about every version imaginable of “A Christmas Carol” and so to get to see this well-known story done in such a unique and exciting way makes me eager to come back again for another edition. Every night is different, so you can explore and experience this awesome production multiple times each year!

Invasion: Christmas Carol runs at The Assembly Theatre until December 14. For more information and tickets, visit: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/invasion-christmas-carol-tickets-1704287924059

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I have a related and funny personal story which I just had to share along with this review. So in the final scene of The Ghost of Christmas Past’s section, just before intermission, DJ Daniel Dunningham and Scrooge are parting, and DJ Daniel Dunningham cries out “Remember Sandstorm by Darude!” which then The Ghost begins to sing as she herself leaves a moment later. My fiancé and I have a shared playlist of Christmas music which we love to listen to during the holidays. The only song which has accidentally made it onto that playlist which is decidedly not Christmas music is “Sandstorm” by Darude. I kid you not. When they mentioned that particular song, out of all of the EDM they could have possibly mentioned, I lost it. The coincidence was just too great, and our shock and delight at the reference too much, for me to not have made an official note about it. Bravo DJ Daniel Dunningham.

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Cover Photo: l-r: Paloma Nuñez, Richard Lam, Lucy Hill, Jamie Cavanagh, and Liz Johnston. Photo by Andrew Fleming Photography.

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