This coming Wednesday evening I’m performing A Christmas Carol: In Dickens’ Own Words. About ten years ago I crafted it from Dickens’ original novella down to an hour-long show, but kept it exclusively in his own words. When he toured America performing it, he stood behind a lectern and read his story with character voices and narration.
I offer my version with lots of Old London characters. Dickens’ magical way of looking at things, not to mention his ingenious way of thinking about justice, shine through.
My Scrooge is very growly and grumpy, grumpier, I’d venture, than any you’ve seen in the movies. He’s as old as greed and loneliness themselves, and I’ve included the scene when he is a young man and his fiancée, having seen such a ruthless money hunger grow in him, feels she doesn’t know him anymore, and so tearfully breaks off their engagement.
The making of Scrooge’s bitterness?
I love Charles Dickens.
The show is free to the public. Colby Memorial Library in Danville, New Hampshire at 7 pm on December 5th.
