The story of the miserly Scrooge, who is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, has been told for nearly 180 years since the novella was published in 1843. But it’s (probably) safe to say this is the first time the story will be given a Malaysian-Sabahan twist and told in English, Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Kadazan.
Directed by multiple BOH Cameronian Arts Awards nominee Christopher Ling and presented by theatrethreesixty, this adaptation features actor Qahar Aqilah as Ebi Monjungkil, the local incarnation of Ebenezer Scrooge.
Musical theatre performer Natalie Makulin takes on the role of every other character, including the aforementioned ghosts – colloquialisms and all.
Qahar and Makulin also worked together to adapt the play from the original.
Ling, 47, tells FMT he was inspired to present this version of the tale during the movement control order earlier this year, fresh off directing a run of a sci-fi play, “Orang Bulan”.
“I experienced a rather strange period of nine days where the themes of ‘A Christmas Carol” – ghostly visitations; the idea of living in the past, present and future – kept coming to me constantly.
“For example, I was watching two unrelated Netflix series at the time that had episodes containing those themes in the very same week,” the artistic director of theatrethreesixty shares.
“I had previously directed a large-cast version of the show in 2008, so I thought I would try directing a smaller, localised version, updated for the pandemic.”
The play, he says, will stay true to the original material despite the Sabahan setting, which has allowed them to provide a unique cultural perspective.
Qahar and Makulin, who have previously worked with theatrethreesixty on acclaimed productions such as “Every Brilliant Thing” and the musical revue “Lost/Found” respectively, tell FMT they thought the story needed to move away from Victorian England.
“I always felt, reading the original, that the phrase ‘bah, humbug’ always triggered an association with Sabah, even though the usage of ‘bah’ is different from how Scrooge uses it,” Qahar, 39, says.
“What a perfect opportunity to place ‘A Christmas Carol’ in an East Malaysian setting, rather than the more expected teh-tarik-and-nasi-lemak peninsular location that happens with many adaptations of Western texts.”
For Sabah-born and -bred Makulin, who is now based in Kuala Lumpur, “it was interesting to find that the problems addressed by Dickens are similar to what we still experience, such as the establishment of workhouses and the effects of industrial capitalism on children.
“We still see these problems today, especially in Sabah – how children are employed to work in certain industries from a very young age,” Makulin, 37, reflects.
Still, the show won’t dwell on these weighty issues; rather, as Ling asserts, the aim is to inspire and uplift viewers after two years of pandemic woes.
“Our story is about hope, redemption and second chances. We are all entitled to the same second chance – and more – as experienced by Monjungkil when he gets to rectify his past mistakes,” Ling says.
“For everyone whose life has been altered or changed in really drastic ways these past couple of years, this show serves as a stepping stone towards a new beginning – a chance to take back everything Covid has stolen from us.”
‘A Christmas Carol’ runs at Nero Events Space, PJPAC @ 1Utama Shopping Centre from Dec 2-12. For tickets, click here or contact 03-77324988.