Review: ZooNation’s Ebony Scrooge – Something to Shout About!

Adapting a novel like Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, is no new endeavour. With varying degrees of relevance and interest, many choreographers and directors (both stage and screen) have tackled this Victorian tale: ‘Scrooge’ is haunted by the ghosts of the Past, Present and Future, in pursuit of better connections with his contemporaries before it’s too late.

In typical style, death is a recurring feature in this Dickensian novel, as with the morality of being kinder and less materialistic. Most versions of A Christmas Carol end with Scrooge being redeemed on Christmas Day. Offering an alternative and contemporary adaptation, ZooNation‘s Ebony Scrooge – directed, written, and choreographed by Danielle ‘Rhimes’ Lecointe – opened at Sadler’s Wells East last month, and press night was a highly anticipated event.

Lecointe is smart in her choices. She celebrates women, her Caribbean heritage and retelling a story which is both culturally and artistically of interest to contemporary audiences. ‘Ebony’, a leading fashion designer, tells her story through hip hop, voguing and earthy Caribbean moves. Lecointe tackles heritage, loss of family, and reconciliation of finding oneself in this two-act production. The audience got it – they cheered and danced in their seats as the story unfolded. Above all, this ‘Scrooge’ was relevant. With choreography by Lecointe, Bradley Charles, Shakara Brown and the ZooNation company, Ebony Scrooge brings a stellar cast of performers who, led by Leah Hill as Ebony, break, pop & lock, K.R.U.M.P, waack and vogue, and tutt. In their programme notes, ZooNation highlight that “Hip hop is a voice for the unheard”. What Lecointe and her collaborators bring to Ebony Scrooge is a complex retelling of Scrooge, one that merges painful notes of the Windrush generation, alongside the pressures of success and materialism in the 21st Century.

The production is a lesson in hip hop culture, with five elements (again, here I’m going back to the programme notes): a score which manipulates records, storytelling through rap, breaking choreography, graffiti (or writing) which is visualised at the start and end of the production, and raising awareness of and amplifying marginalised voices.

The creative team collectively are onto a winning production. With Lou Cope as dramaturg, the animation by Andrew Pavanello captures the spirit of the story through humour and pathos. The lighting designs (Charlie Morgan Jones) and set design (Jo Scotcher) transform the space over and over again, allowing the performers to move into different moments in the narrative. Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante’s score pulses and radiates energy through the production. The plot reworks the traditional Dickensian order of past, present and future, offering a resolution that the future and present can only be understood if we understand our past. This is a clever move, one that pays off in reminding us that we carry our past with us, in pursuit of our happiness.

At the heart of the production is a stellar group of dancers, two of whom also MC. As Ebony, Hill drives a strong performance: she vogues, she breaks, she lyrically shifts into a contemporary language, while moving through four-inch platform stilettos, trainers, and then into being barefoot (a metaphor for the transition in her narrative). The ensemble moves seamlessly into roles like Future, Present and Past. Of stellar quality is Portia Oti (a dancer I noted during ZooNation’s run of The Mad Hatter’s Teaparty at the Linbury, Royal Ballet and Opera in September 2024). Oti can do all of what hip hop does: she breaks, she MCs key parts of the story, and she brings her authentic self to the performance. As does Malachi Welch, also an accomplished artist across musical theatre, theatre, film, and the music industry. The ensemble is the glue that binds the narrative together, and the diversity of the dancers is a credit to Kate Prince’s company.

ZooNation is relevant as a British icon of voicing the marginalised voices. If every production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ were as socially aware as Ebony Scrooge, I do think the world might be a kinder and more forgiving place. This is a highly recommended production, which I have no doubt will have much mileage.

Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel

Dr Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel is a dance scholar, educator and published author. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dance (2003), the Universities of Durham and Surrey, and London Metropolitan University (2013). Her doctoral research focussed on Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Noces (1923), and the re-imaginings by contemporary choreographers Angelin Preljocaj and Mauro Bigonzetti. Kathrina is a former director of the Society of Dance History Scholars (now Dance Studies Association). Her scholarship on ballet histories has been published in peer-reviewed anthologies and journals, as well as newspapers, high-end magazines, and online blogs. She has authored a book on the legacy of Nathalie Poutiatine and ballet in Malta (Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, 2020) and co-edited an extensive and pioneering anthology titled The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet (Oxford University Press, 2021).