"Star Trek legend Patrick Stewart blasts the dust off all the holly and mistletoe and presents us with a fresh interpretation of one of Charles Dickens's greatest hits. His Scrooge, unlike the over-the-top memory of Alistair Sims, is central. As actor, director and adapter, Stewart gives us a master class as well as a masterly portrayal. He manages to perform and narrate the seasonal tale with the enthusiasm of someone discovering it for the first time..." The Daily Express

"A Christmas Carol is a story that is almost too well known but Patrick Stewart's version at the Albery Theatre makes us see it afresh. Not because he takes any startling new approach to it but because he goes back to the text. In his solo delivery Stewart savours Dickens' prose with a relish bettered only by the Cratchits as they tackle their meagre Christmas goose. Perhaps best described as a dramatically enhanced narration, Stewart's performance takes on all the characters with just a change of stance and voice..." The Financial Times

"...Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is now available in the tasteful, actor-friendly, Patrick Stewart packaging... I offer just half a cheer for Patrick Stewart's adaptation and confident solo performance of Dickens's novella... Sadly, the Brechtian style of Stewart's self-directed production, which in the past won him an Olivier award and Broadway hosannahs, is designed to emphasise the actor as virtually the show's sole animator... He wins the audience, who provided a standing ovation, by deftly exploiting all the comic opportunities, but the over-reliance on his own voice and gestures is irritating..." The London Evening Standard

"Stewart won an Olivier award with this show in 1993 and one sees why. It's not just that, in this increasingly slovenly era, his diction and projection are so immaculate every young actor should book or be booked into the Albery. It's that he combines energy with subtlety. His take on Scrooge is fresh yet surely Dickensian: a man who, starting in childhood, became so isolated that all he can do now is pile up money and fend off others in a voice that sounds less like a growl than a dry, rustling murmur at the back of the throat..." The Times