BRATTLEBORO — There are few works in the English language as familiar almost to the point of cliché as Charles Dickens's “A Christmas Carol.”
“A Christmas Carol” was first published in 1843. Dickens culled the story from personal childhood experiences along with various Christmas stories. The book is generally considered one of the greatest influences for the restoration of the Christmas holiday and it has never been out of print.
But this work just as much a ghost story set in a cold, dark world of despair, misery, and death as it is a rousing defense of the Christmas spirit. In Dickens' time, it's estimated that nearly half of all funerals in London were for children under 10. The average mortality age was 25.
Darkness and light define this work, along with sharply drawn characters and vigorous writing. That explains why it was an instant hit. Less than a year after the book was published, as many as 12 theatrical productions of it were playing in London.
The story has been adapted as an opera, a ballet, radio plays, in numerous film and television productions, and it has been parodied, pastiched, and riffed upon for decades.
Given this history, how to you make “A Christmas Carol” fresh and new?
Jessica and James Gelter decided to give it a try. James wrote a new stage adaptation for the story, and his wife, Jessica, is directing it in a Vermont Theater Company production at the Hooker-Dunham Theater in Brattleboro. Its last weekend of performances is Dec. 19-21.
James Gelter wrote that he was well aware of the many adaptations of “A Christmas Carol,” each with its own spin or variation on the story.
“I tried to keep mine as true to Dickens's original text as possible, with changes only made to accommodate a theatrical format,” he said.
One addition to the play that Gelter has made is music. The play features Christmas carols of the Victorian era, and new arrangements of traditional classics by James Gelter, with music direction by Julia Waldron, a senior at Brattleboro Union High School.
John Mack, the manager of the Hooker-Dunham Theater, has the role of Scrooge in the Gelters' production.
He wrote that the Dickens story “offers all that one could wish at both ends of the theatrical spectrum: roles for a zillion characters with characterizations that are clear and easily taken on” and a complex tale of what changes in self-awareness are necessary for a person to fundamentally change his or her life.
Jessica Gelter wrote that the central message of the story is timeless.
“My favorite part of the play is just the message, 'Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were, all, my business.'
“It's a beautiful reminder that the holiday season gives us all the opportunity to express the compassion inside ourselves for our fellow men and women. I hope that's what people take away from the show - that they walk out the doors with love flowing more easily out of them,” she added.
Mack wrote that the total effect of this new adaptation of the play and its thoughtful and incisive direction is to evoke the full nightmare that Scrooge must endure in order to change his ways.
“No, this is not a million-dollar Broadway mega-show, but what it lacks in star appeal and expensive production values is more than made up for, I believe, by the wonderful intimacy of the characterizations in the intimate setting of the Hooker-Dunham Theater,” he said.