NI actor Dan Gordon on playing Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol at the Lyric

Set in the heart of Victorian Belfast, the fresh adaptation from award-winning playwright Marie Jones, and directed by her son, Matthew McIlEhinney, is a joyous reimagined take on Dickens’ beloved story, infused with laughter, music, and festive charm.

A stellar cast, including, Marty Maguire, Richard Clements, Matthew Forsythe, Jayne Wisener, Jonny Grogan, Mary Moulds, Ellen Whitehead, Katie Shortt, and Conor Hinds, bring multiple characters to life, transforming the Lyric stage into a bustling Victorian Belfast cityscape filled with joy, redemption, and holiday sparkle.

For Dan, it’s the third time the much-lauded local actor has been involved with A Christmas Carol at the Lyric. In 1981, and just out of college, he was a stage hand, then in a later production he played Scrooge’s overworked, underpaid clerk, Bob Cratchit.

"Now I’ve moved up the ranks to playing Scrooge himself. And it is one of my favourite Christmas films," he said.

There have been many memorable screen Ebenezers, from Alastair Sim and a singing Albert Finney to Bill Murray in Scrooged and Michael Caine appearing with the Muppets.

“The Alastair Sim version in 1951 was just a fantastic piece. Sim was just such a brilliant actor. But there's so many versions. And they're all great,” said Dan.

“The story itself is such an eternal story. It's such a lovely morality tale. I think that's the important thing about a good story, that somebody changes, that they are one thing and then they become something else. In this case it's for the better.

"Scrooge is shown his past and the opportunities that he missed, and the good people that he lost and could have been with. He made the wrong decisions because he was just worried about money, then right through to witnessing the poverty of the people who work for him, and the people who stay in the houses that he owns.”

“I wouldn't say it's the Muppets’ version, but it's certainly more towards the Michael Caine feel of a joyous thing as Scrooge discovers and rediscovers his humanity.”

Written by Charles Dickens in 1843, the timeless tale of redemption is a story so inescapable in culture that nearly everyone knows about old misanthropist Ebenezer Scrooge learning the value of compassion and kindness after being visited by three ghosts in the early hours of Christmas morning.

Whilst Jones’ brilliant adaptation gives Dickens’ original a fresh, local twist, Dan said it stays true to the magic and all the elements which people know and love.

“Ebenezer Scrooge is the skinflint miser who doesn't treat people very well. Then he's visited by his dead partner (Jacob Marley) to tell him he's going to see three more ghosts and they're going to take him through past, present and future Christmas and educate him in the way of the world and put some manners on him!"

Jones’ version is told through Belfast’s Victorian backstreets and entries.

"All those tiny little streets off Donegall Street and those little entryways that haven't changed since the 1800s, since the time of the famine, since the time of Queen Victoria. She set in amongst all of that to give the feeling of the past always being with you, the way that it shapes you and turns you into who you are. But it doesn't have to be that way.

“A couple of Salvation Army women turn up and they cite the fact that all these people came to ‘Linenopolis’ because that's where they were making the linen industry, and the ship building was kicking off, and the rope works, but there still wasn't enough work to go around…., the poverty, people living in tiny little terraces, using shared toilets. The play doesn't dwell on that in a maudlin way, but it does educate.”

Audiences will also make out snippets of Ulster Scots.

“I almost feel like I'm an Ulster Scots Scrooge, because there’s so much Ulster Scots terminology in it,” said Dan.

“Scrooge gives off about ‘big dirty brutes of pigeons’ and a ‘quare feed’. He’s very fond of the word ‘fornenst’. For example he says, ‘It’s a quare excuse to rifle a man's pockets fornenst his two eyes every 25th of December.

“A lot of what I would have recognised from my own childhood, that Ulster Scots tradition of vocabulary that is carried into English, is used because all of the rural people came up into Belfast and it slipped into the Belfast idiom.”

The set and staging are also cleverly thought out to reflect the themes in the story.

“There's a lot of mist and smoke, which is very effective and evocative. The lighting catches that mist and it looks beautiful. It does remind you of those wee back streets of Belfast.

“The costumes are muted, but when things get better the colours start to appear. And that's lovely to see. For instance in the Fezziwig scene (the generous employer of the young Ebenezer), where Scrooge goes back to see him, there's a burst of colour and music.”

A Christmas Carol is essentially about the salvation of an irredeemably miserable old man through spectral visitations that scare him back to his wits, and restore him to happiness by showing him the pleasure of generosity, can Dan in any way relate to the character of Scrooge?

"Absolutely! I am a miserable fool. I’m certainly grumpy. I'm a middle-aged man and you know they can’t help themselves. You just don't want to be in their company. They should go off fishing or something, leave the rest of humanity alone. Because they complain about everything from dog mess in the street to why the buses are late and then they ring Stephen Nolan. That's who I am. I can't help it.

"But I am generous. I'm no good with money. If I have it and somebody needs it, they'll get it. I've always believed that if somebody's down on their luck and you can help them, you should do it. I am a big believer in karma, that if you do good to people, good will come to you.

“I also think I've arrived at an age now where I am more accepting of stuff. And I know stuff as well. I know that every audience is different. Every audience for me is a character in this play – in any play I'm doing – but particularly in this one. And they receive the play in a certain way.

“When you're playing to eight-year-olds you have to come off the pedal a bit on the scary man and let them in and allow them to enjoy it. But in the evening time when the adults come we can take a bit of a harder edge, you lean into it a little bit more and you enjoy giving Bob Cratchit a hard time.”

Dickens’ story is full of pungent prose, didactic messages and famous lines, and for Dan it’s easy to pick a favourite.

“I love the line, ‘I will not be the man I was’. When somebody sees the error of their ways, and they say to themselves, not to the world, I will not be the man I was. I think that’s a stunning thing for someone to say about themselves.”

If you’ve seen more adaptations of A Christmas Carol than you’ve had turkey dinners, this one won’t disappoint. The show runs until January 11 at the Lyric, and Dan is encouraging people to see it in the new year if they can’t get tickets for a Christmas show.

He added: “On the back of that I would another line I love: ‘I will honour Christmas in my heart and I will live it all the year.”

Tickets for A Christmas Carol start from £15 and are available now from the Lyric Theatre box office and online at www.lyrictheatre.co.uk