As adapted by Steve Cramer
Almost everyone knows the story of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol...the story about that stingy, tight-fisted man who hates the season of joy and fellowship and sharing and giving. And yet there are many people who might not have had the opportunity to be visited by productions of Christmas pasts, or been exposed to this famous work, so here is the not-so-quick version:
Ebeneezer Scrooge was, as I said, a tight-fisted person who not only hated Christmas and everything we have come to know it represents, but on the other side of the coin, so to speak, he loved money...gold specifically...and that quest to covet money and put everything else after that, including his fellow man (or woman) is the center of the motivation for this play. He is quite feared and hated. We are told that in the narration. And we are quite understanding as to why people would not care at all if he were no longer alive, because he makes his poor employee (Bob Cratchit) cower and shake and always so scared that he will be fired. Even when Scrooge's own Nephew Fred visits with such good cheer, just the words "Merry Christmas" is enough to drive Scrooge to rants and raves, so you just know that when Bob Cratchit wants Christmas day off, it is not going to go very well at all. (Now you see why Unions were formed!) But that's another story, and it was done so well that Sally Field found that people "really liked her". Really.
Scrooge should be so lucky. He goes about saying "Bah Humbug" so much you just know he will never be asked to join the Optimists, or ever asked to play in any reindeer games. And so, with one more Bah Humbug, Scrooge falls asleep just long enough for a lighting change and sound cue, and is awakened by his old now-dead partner, Jacob Marley, who is wearing chains and moaning away at all the things he wished he did to help his fellow man...and now he has to walk the earth to try to get others to do better. Thus, he is there to haunt Scrooge. And not only is he there to haunt Scrooge, but he tells him that other Spirits will come to haunt him as well. (And if the actors can change fast enough, audience members will be haunted too.)
And now the fun begins. For after Marley leaves, a pretty young woman appears with twinkly lights and a ghostliness about her, and tells Scrooge she is going to show him excerpts from his past in hopes of showing him the error of his ways. So off they go, and Scrooge sees his young self as a boy at a schoolhouse, and his little sister coming to "take him home, home, home" where things are so much nicer now. Well, good news/bad news. Boy Scrooge goes home but we find out that his little sister dies while giving birth to her son Frederick. And the Spirit shows the place where Scrooge worked as an apprentice, and where he becomes engaged to the beautiful Belle. But somehow, something changes Ebeneezer...and the next scene (in my version) gives the audience more hints than you normally see. However, everyone knows the famous lines, "Another idol has displaced me...a golden one". Yes, Scrooge has found a new love to replace Belle...a love for money. So they break up.
And with another wave of her twinkly arms, Christmas Past shows Ebeneezer that Belle did not pine away for very long, but found happiness in her future, while Scrooge remained alone as he is now.
Well, that is about all there is to the first half of the show, other than the fact that I always wondered exactly who Christmas Past was supposed to be. After all, when Scrooge asks who if he knows her, she does say she is the Ghost of Christmas Past, and he asks, "Long past?" and she says, "No, your past." Now, I wonder who would care enough for this man to come back "through whole trains of years to be there"?
But back to Intermission. That is where everyone gets up and stretches their legs and gets some hot chocolate or coffee or tea and maybe a candy bar to keep everyone happy while strolling through the lobby enjoying the original artwork by Richard Guy, a local professional artist.
Oh, but now the musical gongs are chiming, so that means it's time to see what other Spirits visit, and what their message might be and if it will have any really drastic effect on the way Scrooge continues living his life.
And sure enough, Scrooge is visited by another Spirit...the Ghost of Christmas Present, who is suspiciously a lot like Santa Claus with all his "Ho ho ho" dialogue. And he takes Scrooge around town showing him how everyone celebrates Christmas, even if they are poor, like his own clerk Bob Cratchit and family. Oh yes, everyone knows about Tiny Tim, that poor Cratchit child who would live and even walk without a crutch if only there was some nice employer to open up his heart...well, everyone would like that to happen, or at least some decent health insurance...but Scrooge has been so stingy that he won't even heat his own business, much less give Bob Cratchit decent pay so he can help poor Tiny Tim.
Well, back to the play. Christmas Present flies Scrooge around the world to visit other people and then back to London (did I tell you the play is set in England?) to look in on his nephew Fred's Christmas party. Now, Fred is a really nice guy, and even though his Uncle Scrooge doesn't like Christmas, he is his Uncle after all, so there is a toast, nevertheless. Now Fred is definitely eligible to become an Optimist! Yes, he accepts his Uncle as he is, but just wishes that somehow a Spirit or whatever just might hit him over the head and take his body and what there is of a soul and show him all the fun he is missing. Not to ignore a cue, Christmas Present drags Scrooge downstage to look out at Ignorance and Want, who are wearing some really nice costumes we borrowed from the Center for the Arts. (Hey, thanks Sally Lay and Anne Ridgeway!) And with a not so happy Ho ho ho, Present leaves, taking the poor poor little children with him.
Now, I'm sure everyone can guess what Spirit is coming next. That's right...Christmas Yet to Come, or Future for short. Scrooge looks behind him and there is a towering presence dressed all in black and a lot of scary wind sounds (but not so scary that a two-year old would ask to be taken from the theatre...this is a child-friendly version). Scrooge is shown how things will be in the future, and of course that means everyone is just fine with Scrooge being dead, and not-so-fine with Tiny Tim being dead. By the time a tombstone emerges, it is clear that Scrooge has learned his lesson, so now all the audience has to do is sit back and enjoy seeing his transformation put into action.
Yes, Scrooge is now a different man. And I mean that literally, because there is one funny bit that is in my adaptation that the children in the audience will laugh about, and maybe a few adults too! After that, Scrooge does run into some of the people he met in the first Stave (Charles Dickens names the parts of the show as if they were musical sections, or Staves, since it was a Christmas "carol". You have to hand it to him, he had a sense of humor.), and everyone can experience the New Scrooge thanks to some beautiful costumes provided by Vpstart Crow (Thanks for the costumes for the adults and all those nice props!). Scrooge even visits his Nephew Fred, and you can imagine what a surprise that was...but not as much as it was for Scrooge. And it was a very pleasant surprise.
But what about the Cratchit family and poor Tiny Tim? I was coming to that. Scrooge gets his humor from Dickens, and so there has to be more than a "Here Bob, take some money...you need it. And get your son's leg fixed before he dies." No, Scrooge decides he will play a little trick on poor Bob, and makes him think he is fired. 'Merry Christmas Bob, you're fired!' No, this is a happy ending Christmas story, so that won't work either. What does work is to tell Bob things will be getting better now that the Spirits are back in his sub consciousness. And according to Dickens himself (who is reading from the script because there is way too much to memorize), things do get better for everyone. Even for Tiny Tim, who steals the show with his, "God Bless Us, Everyone!"
So that's what the story is about, in a nutshell. Now, please don't skip coming to the theatre and paying for a ticket, as I'm sure you will find the actual acting and theatre ambiance much more satisfying than my nutshell example that is more shell than nuts...or perhaps I should say there is 'more grave than gravy' to it. This is a terrific cast and even better crew (everyone in the Tech Booth is always laughing so much at some of the lines and actions...it has been the most pleasant show to be part of). And just to make sure you get a bit more of a preview, here are some additional photos from this production:
Photography by Manuol Amado
For a Video Slide Show of the Cramer Center production on YouTubeTM, just click HERE
Are you still here?
Oh, so you want the behind the scenes tour? All right, here is what went into writing this adaptation.
Backstory creations mostly from the imagination of Stephen J. Cramer
By my calculations, Ebeneezer Scrooge is 54 years old when the story begins.
Father’s name was Benjamin Scrooge, and he was a well-respected member of the exchange. He and his son-in-law, Jonathan Hatch would perish at sea, crossing the Atlantic to expand into the New World…something Fanny’s husband was pushing. The news of their deaths, her father’s and her husband’s, sent her into horrible depression, and she fell quite ill. Scrooge saw her losing her strength each day as she was staying at the family home where he lived, since her husband and her father were away. It was a larger house, after all, and the mid-wife was a member of the housekeeping staff. She died on Christmas Day…just hours after giving birth to her son, Frederick (Nephew Fred)
(This is one reason why Scrooge finds Christmas Day especially hateful, and why he also has such dislike for Fred.)
Scrooge’s mother, Emily Parker, died from influenza, caught it from Ebeneezer, and so his father considered it Ebeneezer’s fault, so sent him away.
Fanny Scrooge (Little Fan) was seven years old when her mother died, and Scrooge was 10 years old. Fan was raised by one of the maids who refused to leave when Benjamin fired the staff after the death of his wife. She told him she would take care of his daughter, and only wished to have a place to live and food to eat, and in exchange, she would administer to all of their needs. Two years later, Benjamin’s heart was softening, especially when he realized that he was falling in love with this housekeeper, named Sarah Danner. It was both Sarah and Fan who asked for young Ebeneezer to join the family again. When Fan runs into her brother’s arms telling him he is a man now and will not be returning to school, he would be about 12 and she would be about 9.
Fanny marries when she is 17 (8 years after they go 'home, home, home') She meets her husband at the Fezziwig party when she and Belle are 16. She has a child when she is 19 (and Scrooge is 22) That is when she dies, and the Scrooge/Belle break-up scene is when he is 23 and she is 20. Nephew Fred has a child...the “new Fan” who is 9, then he is about 33. That makes Scrooge 55 years old.
When Fanny gets married, Scrooge is 20, and working at Fezziwig’s. It is after Fan’s death a few years later that Ebeneezer turns so bitter…and that he and Belle split up.
When creating this adaptation of such a well-known classic work, I began my research by looking at the original text in its entirety, without concerns for what was possible to perform on stage, with the thought that it would be more accurate to make editing decisions later. First, I separated all known dialogue notated in the book as scripted words. Then I continued by converting any phases like, “Scrooge said that he would see him-yes, indeed he did. He went the whole length of the expression, and said that he would see him in that extremity first”, into:
Scrooge: Yes, I’ll dine with you all right…never!
After completing the play in that manner, it was time to create dialogue that was formed from larger narrative descriptions, such as talking about children playing, or people gathering and commenting about the season, or about Scrooge. Finally, I found that there were many gaps in the script—many unanswered questions which I wanted to provide my own answers, based on clues in the original script. I decided to form a time-line for all the characters and events, and layer it on top of the original Dickens novel. To make everything very realistic for me, I even gave names and histories to all the characters in the book—even children playing together in the schoolyard (Any characters not named in Dickens' own hand are members of my own family or ancestors, like Thomas Hatch, Sarah Ludlow, or my own children, William and Emily.)
Timeline:
1750 Benjamin Scrooge is born
1776 Benjamin fights in the Revolutionary War
He is 26, and is a Lieutenant under General Burgoyne
1778 Benjamin
returns from the War after being injured at the Battle of Saratoga, and marries
Emily Parker.
She is a cousin and is 16 years old at the time.
1779 Scrooge is born
His father,
Benjamin, is 29
1782 Fanny is born
1789 Scrooge’s mother dies (she gets the flu from
Scrooge while nursing him to health)
Scrooge
sent to Boarding School (Scrooge is 10)
Fanny is 7 years old
Benjamin is 39
Benjamin dismisses all of his house staff; but Sarah Danner, a 20 year old maid asks him if she can stay for only her room and board, and in return she will take care of Fanny and see to all the household needs. He agrees.
1791 Scrooge is a ‘man’ at 12 and goes home and is
apprenticed to Fezziwig
Fanny is 9 years old.
Benjamin marries again, to Sarah Danner, the housekeeper who has been raising Fanny. It was Sarah who had softened Benjamin’s heart, and she and Fanny had asked that Ebeneezer return home, and begin his apprenticeship with Fezziwig.
Benjamin is 41, Sarah is 29
1798 [The Romantic Period begins in the Victorian Era]
Fezziwig Party-
Scrooge is 19
Fanny is 16
Fezziwig is 55
Benjamin Scrooge is 48, and Sarah Danner Scrooge is 36
1799 Fanny is 17 and engaged to the young Lieutenant whom she met at the Fezziwig party.
1800 Fanny is 18 and married
1801 Scrooge and Fanny’s Father, Benjamin, and Fanny’s husband Jonathan, are lost at sea while going to the New World. Fanny sinks into serious depression.
Fanny is 19 and gives birth to a
child, Frederick, on Christmas Day.
She dies a few hours later. Unfortunately, her last words are
not heard by her brother. "Ebeneezer...Take care of my son...take care
of my son."
The widow, Sarah Danner Scrooge takes the child to her brother’s house (Uncle Topper Danner), and she and Fred remain there. Fred’s house we see in the show was actually Topper’s.
Sarah is 38, and Topper is 43
Scrooge is 22 and now owns everything that was his father’s, including the
house.
With his newfound wealth, Scrooge resigns from Fezziwigs, takes over his father’s seat on the exchange, and begins amassing his fortune. He enters into a partnership with Jacob Marley, who is 29.
1802 Scrooge is 23, and Belle is 20 (the
same age Fanny would have been if she lived). This is the time for the
Belle 'break-up' scene, and she has travelled to
London to see
Ebeneezer and discuss her concerns and if he responds that he realizes the
wrongs in his life, she will work with him to remain together...but if
not, then she
knows she must end the relationship.
1804 Belle marries Dick Wilkins. She is 22 and Dick is 25
1806 Belle and Dick have their first child. She is 24 and Dick is 27
1812 Fezziwig Dies. He was 69
Dick is 33 and takes over the warehouse
Fred is 11
1824 Fred marries Elizabeth
Fred is 23 and Elizabeth is 18
1825 Fanny is born to Fred and Elizabeth
1827 Belle hears Dick talk about seeing Scrooge sitting
alone, she is 45 and Dick is 48
Belle and Dick’s children are 21, 18, 16, 13, and 11
Jacob Marley
Dies. He was 55 at the time. (“He died
seven years ago this very night”)
Scrooge is 48
1834 Time of Present (Scrooge is 55)
Belle is 52
Fred is 33, Elizabeth is 28, and Fanny is 9 years old
(If Topper were alive, he would be 76, but he died and left the house to Fred. Women were not allowed to own property, so Sarah was allowed to live there, but not inherit it.)
Sarah Danner Scrooge is 71
With this information, it was easy for me to create additional scenes and dialogue for the play, and stay true to the historical timeline. After that was done, I read over my new script and notated additional questions I wondered about. Scenes about the Destitute Husband and Wife that appeared in the Future needed to be explained, in my version, so I created an earlier meeting. Likewise, when Christmas Present takes Scrooge to visit other lands to show him that Christmas is celebrated in many lands, those places needed representation somehow, without a budget for Hollywood Special Effects. And if there is going to be a break-up scene where the engagement ends, then there should be a beginning. Finally, in the real world of theatre, there are limits to the number of actors that can be hired, so there is a need to 'double' actors and parts. Typically, a director chooses what actors play multiple roles, and those decisions are based mainly on ability to just be at the right place at the right time, and just throw on a wig or different clothes in an attempt to 'fool' the audience into believing the actor is another person altogether. Realistically, that usually fails miserably.
And so, it was my choice to make the doubling of characters actually be part of the script, and be very purposeful. I noticed that one of the Gentlemen who asks Scrooge for money was very much like Christmas Present, and even had lines that foreshadowed later dialogue. It could not be just an accident that Dickens chose those similarities. I believe that Dickens had the same actor in mind to play both roles, and so I looked for other such clues and foreshadowing. The Destitute Husband and Wife? Surely they are exactly what a Young Scrooge and Belle might have been if they had remained together and been poor and thus subject to men like old Scrooge who was demanding payment 'no matter what'. And Little Fan, his sister? We know she dies, so that led me to the realization of what part she might play in Scrooge's 'reclamation'. And who better to be reincarnated as Fred's daughter, but the little girl who so looks like her Grandmother when she was little? Other parts fell into place even easier. Martha Cratchit brings the goose when she arrives, and it is clear that she works and was running late because of that, so why not make her one of Fred's housekeepers? About the only thing left I had to figure out was how to make Scrooge be in two places at the same time...and for that, you need to buy a ticket!
I hope you enjoy my adaptation of this timeless classic, and that it has, in the immortal words of Charles Dickens, “not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me.”
Merry Christmas!
Stephen J. Cramer
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