ZooNation’s Ebony Scrooge at Sadler’s Wells East Review
Photo by Pamela Raith
Written by Liam Arnold for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
Dickens’ A Christmas Carol feels so firmly welded into British cultural memory that any reinvention must justify its existence. ZooNation’s Ebony Scrooge—the company’s first full Christmas show—more than earns its place, even if its reach sometimes exceeds its narrative hold. Choreographer, writer, and director Dannielle “Rhimes” Lecointe brings hip-hop theatre’s storytelling power to the tale, relocating the miser’s journey from Victorian counting house to the high-pressure, high-gloss world of contemporary fashion. The result is richly imaginative, culturally rooted, and emotionally sincere.
In Lecointe’s version, Scrooge becomes Ebony (Leah Hill): a formidable Black fashion mogul whose monochrome couture makes her an instant icon of control and cold glamour. Her currency isn’t money but validation—image, legacy, the unrelenting pursuit of perfection. Ebony emerges from real-world pressures: the fashion industry’s troubling decline in Black leadership representation and the persistent lack of belonging reported by Black employees. Through this lens, Ebony’s obsession with maintaining her status reads not as villainy but as the brittle armour of someone who has survived in an environment never built for her.
Lecointe deepens the character further with autobiographical undercurrents. Ebony’s estrangement from Christmas stems from family loss—a detail drawn from Lecointe’s own painful history of grief, disconnection from festive traditions, and her grandmother’s decline due to dementia. Her family’s journey from Dominica as part of the Windrush generation threads through the story, too. The ghosts who guide Ebony through her past, present, and future are framed not merely as Dickensian moral signposts but as guardians of heritage and memory. When colour erupts into Ebony’s monochrome world, it symbolises not just festive redemption but a reconnection to Caribbean lineage, music, culture, and selfhood.
These layers elevate the premise from remix to reclamation. ZooNation’s best work has always understood hip hop as a language of embodied history, and Lecointe taps into that tradition with an Afrofuturist flair. Michael “Mikey J” Asante’s original score blends hip hop, dancehall, gospel, and R&B. At its best, the production becomes a temporal remix: the Caribbean past, London present, and an imagined future.
The choreography bursts with athletic energy—popping, waacking, krump, and intricate musicality. But overall dramaturgical cohesion occasionally falters. Some numbers dazzle more than they develop character. The piece can slip into hyperactive spectacle, where dance illustrates sentiment rather than deepening it.
Still, ZooNation continues its mission with flair and integrity. Ebony Scrooge may not be the definitive modern Christmas Carol, but it is a vibrant, heartfelt, and culturally resonant offering. A remix stitched with ambition and personal truth, it glows with a tender message: that healing lies in accepting one’s lineage and finding colour in what once seemed only monochrome.
Ebony Scrooge is currently playing at Sadler’s Wells East until 4th January
★ ★ ★
