A Christmas Carol as Family Tradition
In The Old Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre in the round, channeling his parents, Charles Dickens and at least 16 of the characters in the original Dickens story, actor Jefferson Mays melts the walls of the theater to take the audience deep into Scrooge’s London of 1843. Written by May’s wife Susan Lyons and co-author Michael Arden, May’s energy and succinct characterizing mannerisms harken back to an oral tradition of story tellers as he weaves the full story in 90 minutes as the authors built it. If read word for word, the actual book would take over three hours – yet nothing is lost.
Jefferson Mays in A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story Told by Jefferson Mays, 2024. Photo by Jim Cox.
Striding across the nearly empty stage, Mays sets the scene in the 1970’s when his family started reading the story to each other. The title “Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story Told by Jefferson Mays” honors the original title of the story by Charles Dickens “ Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas.” first published in December 181 years ago.
With a simple side table, pitcher of water, drinking glass and the book on stage, each scene transitions with a dimming and return of the lights as Mays opens the book to begin to read saying “Stave” and the number. A stave is a stanza or verse in a poem or song – or – in this case Dicken’s novella and separates the chapters. With a sentence or two read, Mays leaves the book aside and recounts the tale of the tightwad Ebeneezer Scrooge. Dickens was doing a bit of social commentary on the poor economic circumstances of many Londoners, written in just weeks as the author himself was under financial pressure to produce the work.
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While forging the story into 90 minutes the authors inserted Dickens-like phrasing such as “a cracking good yarn” that was not in the original text but stayed mostly true to the original story including pure Dickensian phrases like “he appeared to wink with his legs.”
Watching Mays navigate addressing each of his view of the audience encircling him worked so as no one was “in the back” or ignored. Every word was delivered with energy and clarity as with such delicious lines from the original like this one:
“Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.”
May’s performance used so many devices to distinguish one character from another that tracking who was speaking was seamless and easy to follow, even in rapid fire exchanges of just a few words back and forth between characters. The vehemence and energy of his speech did produce a prodigious amount of spittle, contained mostly to center stage.
While the novella has been made into countless plays and movies and even cartoons, the Globe’s rendition through May’s well spoken and dramatic performance, revealed the extent of Dicken’s humor with frequent lines that tickled the audience.
Directed by Barry Edelstein, the Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director of the The Old Globe with lighting by Joel Britt and stage managed by Anjee Nero, the entire props collection included: the book, May’s hair, a handkerchief, a water pitcher and glass, a suit coat and May’s squeaky shoes that enhanced his portrayal of the four ghosts that visit Scrooge.
And anyone who has really cried in a shoulder-shaking, teary, sniveling cry knows how that zaps the crier’s energy. Portraying the transformed Ebeneezer Scrooge, Mays barely wobbled as he went into and then out of a good cry. He resumed with so much energy, returning to his crisp, audience scanning speech after an unbroken 90 minutes of storytelling, that it hardly seemed like any time had passed since the lights had temporarily dimmed at the beginning and he had said “Stave 1” and begun the tale. For an audience sure to have heard or seen other version of A Christmas Carol, Mays held the audience spell-bound and unaware of time passing to tell the story again and that is a remarkable feat.
The show runs December 12 – 22, 2024 at The Old Globe Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre in Balboa Park
With a Creative Writing degree from the University of Arizona and an MBA from the University of San Diego and years of website experience, Mr. Burgess supports this site with technical and publishing expertise and pretty much really enjoys working with everyone associated with it. Read more…