A Huron County Christmas Carol At The Blyth Festival
This year’s production of A Huron County Christmas Carol is the third iteration of Blyth’s inspired adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic. I enjoyed its previous outings in 2019 and 2023 and it just seems to get better every time it’s revived.
The adaptation by Blyth Artistic Director Gil Garratt, who also directed, transposes the tale from Victorian London to present-day Huron County where Ebenezer Scrooge and his late partner Jacob Marley have created an Ontario-wide monopoly on grain mills, forcing farmers to kowtow to their strict standards as they cut lucrative export deals from Hong Kong to Hungary.
The protean Randy Hughson returns as Scrooge. The opening scene of A Huron County Christmas Carol is a comic gem. Scrooge excoriates a tardy farmer over the phone, telling him that he can use an extension cord to take his wife’s hair dryer into the fields to dry his corn himself, one handful at a time. I enjoyed it just as much the third time around.
Only Hughson could make the spectacle of an evil, despicable, soulless, money-grasping monster such a joy to watch!
Garratt has cut the well-known plot to its essentials, the better to accommodate the original music and songs of John Powers turning A Huron County Christmas Carol into something of a home-spun musical.
Thanks to a terrific company composed of familiar faces and new discoveries this approach succeeds beyond measure.
First among A Huron County Christmas Carol alumni is George Meanwell who, in addition to serving as musical director, plays a number of roles and plays them masterfully.
In years gone by I was most familiar with Meanwell as a troubadour providing interstitial musical accompaniment in Shakespeare productions at the Stratford Festival. Blyth has given him an opportunity to spread his wings and develop into quite an accomplished actor.
He scores as Marley’s ghost and as Doc Cruickshank in a moment from Scrooge’s past that pays homage to the man behind the legendary radio station CKNX and its iconic Barn Dance show. I might mention parenthetically that earlier this season Blyth devoted an entire play, Radio Town, to the Doc Cruickshank story in which Meanwell also appeared.
Back, too, is Graham Hargrove, who provides percussion for Notes From Underground, an indie rock group composed of Stratford Festival stars.
He performs a similar role in A Huron County Christmas Carol as well as reprising his roles as a creepy Ghost of Christmas Past and as Scrooge’s irrepressibly optimistic nephew and organic farmer Fred. He and Meanwell also provide delightful intermission entertainment.
The newcomers to the cast are every bit as impressive.
Multi-instrumentalist Nathan Howe is pretty much perfect in his several roles. As narrator he takes the musical lead in “Dead As A Doornail,” a wry twist on Dickens’ famous opening line, “Marley was dead: to begin with.”
He makes a slightly goofy Cactus Mac in the Barn Dance sequence and a rock-solid Bob Cratchit. I should also mention that he wrote the aforementioned Radio Town and is pretty handy with a saxophone!
Montreal-based singer-songwriter Brontae Hunter who plays Belle and Mrs. Cratchit is a real discovery and a major talent. A fine actress, she has a powerful voice that could fill the largest halls in Toronto and, with any justice, soon will.
Her rendition of “So Caught Up In The Money,” in which Belle rejects Scrooge’s money lust is positively electrifying.
The cute-as-a-bug Madeline Elliott Kennedy, who was so impressive in this season’s Powers and Gloria, is a delight as, among others, the Ghost of Christmas Present and the auctioneer who sells Scrooge’s immortal soul to the bidder with horns in the back row.
Director Garratt, ignoring Noel Coward’s sage advice, has put his daughter on the stage. A Huron County Christmas Carol marks Goldie Garratt’s third appearance on Blyth’s stages and at the ripe old age of nine she has become quite the self-assured actress.
As “Tiny Tillie” she is the Cratchit’s terminally ill daughter, suffering from an unspecified crippling disease. Since the family is barely scraping by she offers her parents a song as a Christmas present. Accompanying herself on the harp, her rendition of “Tomorrow Will Be Better” is the emotional core of the show and it reduced more than one member of the audience to tears – at least I’d like to think I wasn’t the only one dabbing at his eyes.
Finally, I must return to the performance of Randy Hughson. Scrooge undergoes a remarkable transformation over the course of the play and Hughson limns that emotional and spiritual journey beautifully.
There is a fleeting moment when the Ghost of Christmas Past returns him to his childhood and he lays his head briefly on his long-dead sister’s shoulder that is pure poetry. Hughson is an actor who can speak volumes with a one-word line or a simple gesture.
Once again the design elements are impeccable – simple, straightforward, and rough-hewn in typical Blyth style. Kudos to set and lighting designer Steve Lucas and costume designer Jennifer Triemstra-Johnston, who wisely resists the temptation to go overboard with the spirits who visit Scrooge. Indeed, less is more.
As in its previous incarnations, A Huron County Christmas Carol ends with a rousing group number that segues into shared Christmas carols.
It’s like celebrating Christmas with family, a large multi-talented musical family. God bless them, every one!
A Huron County Christmas Carol continues at the Blyth Festival through December 21, 2025. For more information and to purchase tickets visit the Blyth Festival website.
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