One Hundred years in existence is something to celebrate in anyone’s books ‘Kirkcaldy Amateur Operatic Society’ also known as ‘KAOS’ has been celebrating their Centennial year in style, 1907 to 2007, culminating in the World Premier Production of a new version of “A Christmas Carol” written especially for the company by Ken Alexander and Jon Beales.

Adapted from the Charles Dickens favourite, which had been made in to the musical ‘Scrooge’, that is still doing the rounds of theatres all over the world. Ken Alexanders book and lyrics concentrate on the darker aspects of the story, tugging at the heart strings, and also guiding us and Scrooge, not only through his past, present and future but also taking us to various corners of the world to hear Christmas carols in Latin, Welsh, Catalan and German. Jon Beales music occasionally drowned out the lyrics but was pleasant to listen to. Its complicated melodies and harmonies lead us to admire the cast who have had to learn and perform these vocal acrobatics.

Jacob Marley (Peter Eason), Christmas Past (Deirde McFarlane), Christmas Present (Monica Holland) and Christmas Yet To Come (Barbara Barker) display four very different spectres, Marley and Yet To Come dark and foreboding following the lighter brighter Past and Present. Each person except Barbara Barker as ‘Christmas Yet To Come’ get to display their vocal and acting talents, ‘Christmas Yet To Come’ is silent.

Clark Graham as Bob Cratchit joined by his wife (Jane Donnelly) and two complete families with six children in each. The Cratchit family provide both comedy and deep tragedy with the family Christmas meal and toasts to scrooge contrasting with Bob Cratchit’s rendition of ‘I Want To Say’ beside Tiny Tim’s graveside.

The pivotal characters Ebenezer Scrooge is played by Iain Rowbotham. His Scrooge starts off as a very dislikeable character and we can see during his visitations and the ensuing journey, several moments of enlightenment. His vocals are very good and cover a wide range.

The show was very different from ‘Scrooge’ the musical, which I have seen several times, there are aspects of this new production which are very fresh and interesting, but there are unfortunately no musical numbers which grab the imagination and have you leaving the theatre humming the tunes.  At times it seemed like there were 100 members in the cast celebrating this Centenary. The costumes are very colourful and varied with Scrooge in monotones; he did at times look quite vampirish, which in itself would terrify anyone he met. The direction of such a large cast must have been a nightmare in itself, the choreography and set changes similarly so.  The 17 strong orchestra occasionally overpower the huge chorus making the lyrics a little difficult to hear.

Here’s to the next 100 years and the next two productions ‘Crazy For You’ May 2008 and ‘Brigadoon’ November 2008 and if you are unable to get a ticket for the show try and get a copy of the CD “Different Stages” through www.kirkcaldy-aos.co.uk .