A Christmas Carol

Production Dates: November 12, 13, 14, and 19, 20, and 21 at 7 p.m.

Tickets are available by contacting ZHS or online by clicking here: Buy Tickets Now!

Ebenezer Scrooge is a man of great wealth, but with little love for life. Scrooge’s assistant, Bob Cratchit, tries to share the spirit of Christmas with his own family and pleads with Scrooge for the holiday off. Scrooge remains unconvinced about the joys of Christmas. As the evening commences, Scrooge faces ghosts and frightening visions of his past, present, and even his future, warning him of his fate should he continue his miserly ways. On Christmas morning, Scrooge awakes a changed man, thanking the spirits who helped him see the real truth about all that life has to offer beyond wealth. He vows to keep the spirit of Christmas in his heart and honor it always. 

Don’t miss out on ZCSTC’s production, adapted from Charles Dickens’ class story by Brian Way, including an innovative REVOLVING SET, gorgeous costumes, and special effects!

In the opening stave of A Christmas Carol Dickens describes Ebenezer Scrooge:

Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind- stone, 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. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dogdays; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.
External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often "came down" handsomely, and Scrooge never did.

Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, "My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts... 
               
But what did Scrooge care? It was the very thing he liked.

He is a character most of us know—synonymous with Christmas.  But do you know that Scrooge’s story is not only famous now, it is partly responsible for rejuvenating and creating many of the Christmas traditions we have today?

A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas (commonly known as A Christmas Carol) is a book by English author Charles

Dickens that was first published on  December 19, 1843, with illustrations by John Leech.  It was the first of the author's five "Christmas books” and created an entirely new literary genre. The story was instantly successful, selling over six thousand copies in one week.  Completed in six weeks under financial duress to help pay off a debt, A Christmas Carol was initially to be written in his leisure moments while writing the more grave work Martin Chuzzlewit.  A Christmas Carol has become one of the most popular and enduring Christmas stories of all time.

Some historians have suggested that its popularity played a significant role in redefining the importance of Christmas and the "spirit" of the holiday. At the beginning of the Victorian period of the 1800’s, the celebration of Christmas was in decline. The medieval Christmas traditions, which combined the celebration of the birth of Christ with the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia (a pagan celebration for the Roman god of agriculture), and the Germanic winter festival of Yule, had come under intense scrutiny by the Puritans under Oliver Cromwell, who for a time, governed England. The Industrial Revolution, in full swing in Dickens' time, allowed workers little time for the celebration of Christmas.

The romantic revival of Christmas traditions that occurred in Victorian times had other contributors: Prince Albert brought the German custom of decorating the Christmas tree to England, the singing of Christmas carols (which had all but disappeared at in the early 1800’s) began to thrive again, and the first Christmas card appeared in the 1840’s. But it was the Christmas stories of Dickens, particularly his 1843 masterpiece A Christmas Carol, that rekindled the joy of Christmas in Britain and America.                

Tied to the theme of the redemption of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, was Dickens’ keen awareness of the plight of the poor and needy. In the 1840’s, Britain was experiencing the Industrial Revolution, its capital was both reaping the benefits and suffering the consequences. In 1800 the population of London was around a million souls. That number would swell to 4.5 million by 1880. The price of this explosive growth and domination of world trade was untold squalor and filth.  Imagine yourself in London at that time.  The homes of the upper and middle class exist in close proximity to areas of unbelievable poverty. Rich and poor alike are thrown together in the crowded city streets. Street sweepers attempt to keep the streets clean of manure, the result of thousands of horse-drawn vehicles. The city's thousands of chimney pots are belching coal smoke, resulting in soot which seems to settle everywhere. In many parts of the city raw sewage flows in gutters that empty into the Thames--into the same water that was used  by some for drinking. Street vendors hawking their wares add to the cacophony of street noises. Pick-pockets, prostitutes, drunks, beggars, and vagabonds of every description add to the colorful multitude. Personal cleanliness is not a big priority, nor is clean laundry. In close, crowded rooms the smell of unwashed bodies is stifling. It is unbearably hot by the fire, numbingly cold away from it.            

Dickens not only provides a picture of these conditions in A Christmas Carol,  he also shows us up close how the needy were treated.  The Victorian answer to dealing with the poor and indigent was the New Poor Law, enacted in 1834. Previously it had been the burden of the parishes to take care of the poor. The new law required parishes to band together and create regional workhouses where aid could be applied for. The workhouse was little more than a prison for the poor. Civil liberties were denied, families were separated, and human dignity was destroyed. The true poor often went to great lengths to avoid this “relief”.  Dickens, because of the childhood trauma caused by his father's imprisonment for debt and his consignment to the blacking factory to help support his family, was a true champion to the poor. He repeatedly pointed out the atrocities of the system through his novels.

The story was often presented as a reading performance by Dickens himself until his untimely death of a stroke.  Since then, not only have millions read the story, they have seen it on the stage and screen, and heard dramatizations of it on the radio.  Over 34 well-known actors have played the role of Scrooge, along with almost 10 cartoon characters ranging from Scrooge McDuck to Fred Flintstone.  This production is our second here at ZHS.  The 1995 production featured two current staff members here now: ag teacher Kellie Tveter and our own Jeff Charbonneau while they were in high school!  That show also marked the first year we used the Z Center Stage Theater Company name.

Today, after more than 160 years, A Christmas Carol continues to be relevant, sending a message that cuts through the materialistic trappings of the season and gets to the heart and soul of the holidays, and connects this Company to its past.  Enjoy.               

Lynn Brant
Director Z Center Stage Theater Company
Zillah High School, 1602 2nd Avenue
Zillah, WA 98953