A Christmas Carol
By
Charles Dickens

Adapted by
Daris Howard

A Christmas Carol
 Copyright 2014
by  Daris Howard
All Rights Reserved

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Cast List
Scrooge - Old, miserly man.
Dickens - Middle aged, well-dressed man.
Ms. Dickens - Middle aged, well dressed woman.
Fred - Man, late 20's to early 30's.
Mrs. Fred - Woman, late 20's toe early 30's.  Fred’s wife.
Cratchit - (Bob Cratchit).  Middle aged, poorly dressed man.
Portly Man - Chubby man.  Business like.
Thin Man - Thin man.  Business like.
Marley - Ghost.  In chains at first in white at end.
    Past - Ghost of Christmas Past.  Angel like, with wreath (lighted if possible)
    Present - Ghost of Christmas Present.  Dressed to look like Santa Claus.  Has a torch.
Future - Scary ghost dressed in dark robe.  Never speaks.
Boy Ebenezer - Boy of about 10.
Girl Fan - Young girl, just younger than Boy Ebenezer.
Young Ebenezer - Late teenage to early 20's version of Ebenezer.
Young Fan - Teenage version of Fan
Fezziwig - Jolly, portly, loud man.
Dick - Young man, late teens to early twenties.
Belle - Young woman, late teens to early twenties.
Mary - (played by same actress as Belle)
Older Belle - A middle aged version of Belle
John - A middle aged man married to Older Belle
Mrs. Cratchit - Middle aged, poorly dressed woman.
    Martha - (Martha Cratchit) - Beautiful young woman, not well-dressed, but energetic.
Peter - (Peter Cratchit) Teenage boy.  Not well-dressed.
Belinda - (Belinda Cratchit) Teenage girl.  Not well-dressed.
    Tiny Tim - (Tim Cratchit) Small boy with simple crutch, struggles to walk.
Small Cratchit Boy - A small boy.
Small Cratchit Girl - A small girl.
Mrs. Fred - Young woman late 20's to early 30's.
Topper - Jolly middle aged man.
Thin Sister - Mrs. Fred’s sister.  Woman late 20's to early 30's.
Plump Sister - Mrs. Fred’s sister.  Woman late 20's to early 30's.
    Poor Girl - Young street girl Fred invited to his home to have dinner.
    Poor Boy - Young street boy Fred invited to his home to have dinner.
Want - Small girl, dirty and in rags, looks thin and hungry.
Ignorance - Small boy, gloomy looking.
Merchant 1 - Man or woman on the street.
Merchant 2 - Man or woman on the street.
Merchant 3 - Man or woman on the street.
Joe - Older, scary looking man.
Charwoman - Middle aged woman.
Laundress - Woman, early 30's to mid 40's.
Undertaker - Middle aged man, dressed in black.
Debtor Wife - Middle aged woman.
Debtor - Middle aged man.
Boy - Boy on street who runs to get Poulter
    Poulter - Man who sells poultry.  Could easily be one of the merchants.
Tim - Older version of Tiny Tim.  Tall and healthy.
    Extra children (some are Older Belle’s children) and towns children
Extra Town’s People


To those reading and/or performing this play:
    One Christmas season I was asked to play Scrooge in a community theatre production.  I read through Dickens’s book and spent some time researching to understand more about life in the day he wrote it.  I also read about his life.  As I did, a deeper understanding came to me about what Dickens might be trying to share with us.
    As I wrote this adaption of his work, I tried to bring all of what I learned and felt into it while staying as true to Dickens’s own words as possible and trying to stay true the his language style with any additions.  I tried to bring out his humor while presenting the seriousness of the subject.  I hope you enjoy it.
    Daris Howard

 Act I Scene 1

{The curtains are closed.  Carolers come out in front and are singing.  People are walking along the streets greeting each other with Christmas cheer.  Charles Dickens walks in with his wife holding onto his arm.  The carolers sing quieter as the dialogue starts.  Fred comes hurrying by and lightly bumps into Dickens.}

Dickens: My goodness, Fred.  Where are you hurrying to on this wonderful Christmas Eve?

Fred: {With a laugh} Oh, my goodness, Mr. and Mrs. Dickens.  How are you?  I’m sorry for my clumsiness.  I was quite caught up in the thoughts of the season, and I was on my way to invite my uncle, Ebenezer Scrooge, over for Christmas dinner.

Dickens: {Quite shocked} Ebenezer Scrooge is your uncle?  Well, I thought I had heard everything.  That old miser is quite the contrary opposite of yourself.

Fred: {Laughing} I take that as a great compliment.  Well, I must be off.

Dickens: {To the audience} For this story, it is important to understand that Marley was dead to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief and only mourner, Scrooge. And Scrooge's name was good upon change for anything he chose to put his hand to.

Mrs. Dickens: Yes, Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Dickens: {Laughing} Mind! We’re not particular to doornails nor do we know anything about their decease.  The thing is, Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and Marley were partners for, I don’t know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and, as I said, his sole mourner.

Mrs. Dickens:  And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.

Dickens:  Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name. There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names. It was all the same to him.

Mrs. Dickens: Scrooge was hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out fire; secret, self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.

Dickens:  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?’

Mrs. Dickens:  No beggars implored Scrooge 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.  But what did Scrooge care? It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance.

{The curtains open slowly, and Scrooge enters.  He puts his coat and hat on a coat tree, then prominently, and carefully, puts his scarf on the coat tree as well.  He then sits at his desk.  On the desk is a candle that he lights, and he starts writing figures in his ledger.}

Dickens: Our story starts at Scrooge’s counting house.  Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!

{The city clock starts striking.  Scrooge gets up, annoyed that Cratchit is not there.  As the bell continues to toll, Cratchit, wrapped in his worn blanket, dashes in.  He quickly wraps his scarf over the coat tree and rushes to his desk, arriving there just as the final (9th) bong of the clock bell sounds.  Cratchit quickly starts entering numbers in his ledger.  Scrooge scowls but says nothing.  As he goes back to work, he keeps an eye on Cratchit.  There is a very small fire close to Scrooge’s desk, but if Cratchit ever tries to go to it, Scrooge clears his throat, and Cratchit quickly retreats back to his ledger.  Sometimes Cratchit tries to warm his hands by the heat from his candle, in which effort, not being a man of strong imagination, he fails.  After a brief time of work, Fred enters.}

Fred:  A merry Christmas, Uncle! God save you!

{Scrooge, annoyed, tries to ignore him and keeps working}

Fred:  A merry Christmas, Uncle! God save you!

Scrooge:  Bah! Humbug!

Fred:  Christmas a humbug, Uncle! You don’t mean that, I am sure?

Scrooge:  I do mean it. {Sarcastically}  Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.

Fred:  Come, then.  What right have you to be dismal? You’re rich enough.

Scrooge:  Bah! Humbug!

Fred:  Don’t be cross, Uncle.

Scrooge:  What else can I be?  I live in a world of fools! {Sarcastically}  Merry Christmas! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer? If I had my way, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, would be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.

Fred:  Uncle!

Scrooge: I mean it, Nephew.  Keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine!
 
Fred:  Keep it!  But you don’t keep it.

Scrooge: Let me leave it alone, then.  What good has it done you?

Fred:  There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say.  Christmas, among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, Uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good, and I say, God bless it!’

{Cratchit applauds}

Scrooge: {To Cratchit}  Let me hear another sound from you, and you’ll keep your Christmas by losing your job! {Turning to Fred and speaking sarcastically}  You’re quite a powerful speaker, Nephew.  I wonder you don’t go into Parliament.

Fred:  Don’t be angry, Uncle. Come! Dine with us tomorrow.

Scrooge: I’d rather die.

Fred:  But why? Why?

Scrooge: Nephew, why did you get married?

Fred: Because I fell in love.

Scrooge: {Sarcastically} Because you fell in love!  That is a stupid reason.

Fred: Why?

Scrooge: Because love gets a person nowhere.  It muddles a person’s thinking by silly, ridiculous emotions.

Fred: I quite like it.

Scrooge: Humbug!

Fred: But you never came even before I was married.  So why give it as a reason for not coming now?

Scrooge: {Indicating he is done}  Good afternoon.

Fred:  I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be friends?

Scrooge: Good afternoon.

Fred:  I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute against me. We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the offer in homage to Christmas, and I’ll keep my Christmas humor to the last. So a Merry Christmas, Uncle!

Scrooge: Good afternoon.

Fred: And A Happy New Year!

Scrooge:  Good afternoon!
 
{Fred turns to leave.  He stops at Cratchit’s desk.}

Fred: Merry Christmas to you, Bob Cratchit.

Cratchit: And a Merry Christmas to you, too.

{Fred leaves.}

Scrooge: {Muttering}  There’s another fellow.  My clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. I swear I’ll retire to Bedlam.

{Two men enter.  Cratchit goes to meet them.  He visits with them briefly, and then brings them over to Scrooge.}

Cratchit: There are two men to see you, Sir.

{The two men are carry books and papers.  They bow to Scrooge.}

Portly Man:  Scrooge and Marley’s, I believe.  Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marley?

Scrooge: I doubt addressing Mr. Marley would be much of a pleasure, as he has been dead these seven years.  Come to think of it, he died seven years ago this very night.

Portly Man: We have no doubt his generosity is well represented by his surviving partner.

Scrooge: {Quickly suspicious}  State your business.

Thin Man:  At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute who suffer greatly. Many thousands are in want of common necessities; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, Sir.

Scrooge:  Are there no prisons?

Portly Man: Plenty of prisons.

Scrooge:  And the Union workhouses. Are they still in operation?

Portly Man: They are.  I wish I could say they were not.

Scrooge:  Oh. I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to them.

Thin Man: A few of us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when want is keenly felt, and abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?’

Scrooge:  Nothing!

Thin Man:  You wish to be anonymous?

Scrooge:  I wish to be left alone.  Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas, and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned—they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.

Portly Man:  Many would rather die than go there.

Scrooge: {Advancing menacingly, the men back away} Then they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. {Aloof}  But it’s none of my business.  And, as mine occupies me constantly, {pointing to the door} good afternoon, gentlemen!

Thin Man and Portly Man: Merry Christmas.

{Scrooge just scowls and points threateningly to the door again.  The men glance at each other and turn to leave.  They wish Cratchit a Merry Christmas on the way out, and he returns their greeting.  The lights begin to fade slightly, showing it is evening.  As the clock starts to strike six o’clock, Cratchit prepares to leave.  He pauses, hoping to ask for the day off.  Scrooge notices.}

Scrooge:  You’ll want the day tomorrow, I suppose?

Cratchit:  If quite convenient, Sir.

Scrooge: {Angrily slamming his hand on his desk}  It’s not convenient!  It is not convenient to pay a day’s wages for no work!

Cratchit: It is only once a year, Sir.

Scrooge: A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December! {Pause} Be here all the earlier next morning.

Cratchit: Yes, Sir, and merry... {As Scrooge glares, Cratchit stops and reconsiders his words} Goodnight, Sir.

{Cratchit leaves.  Scrooge speaks angrily to himself.}
                        
Scrooge: Christmas is nothing but a time for people to think they can get something for nothing, a scam, a humbug.


Act I Scene 2

{Scrooge walks from his counting house dressed back up in his coat, hat, and scarf.  (This could be in front of the stage or in front of a closed curtain.)  He is wearing his scarf clearly for the audience to see.  Mr. and Mrs. Dickens are there.  Some groups of people are caroling on the street.  Cratchit, smiling, has stopped briefly to listen to one group that is made up of children.  But as Scrooge approaches, Cratchit continues on his way.  The children partially surround Scrooge singing Good King Wenceslas, hoping for some money.  Scrooge scowling, stares at them narrowly as they continue, and then lets out a loud growl/roar, menacing the children.  The children run off, screaming and crying.  Everyone moves out of his path and away from him.}

Mr. Dickens: No one liked Scrooge, except his nephew, Fred, who couldn’t seem to find it in his heart to dislike anyone.

Mrs. Dickens: But there was no one else.  No one at all.

Mr. Dickens: No child liked Scrooge.  No man.  No woman.  Not even dogs liked him.

{Scrooge continues on.  As he walks, the stage is being changed to his bedroom scene.  He comes to his door.  As he reaches for it, Marley’s face appears.  (This can be accomplished by having a cut out segment of the door with some soft fabric, like a nylon, that Marley can stick his face into.)  Scrooge backs up in shock.}

Scrooge: It’s Marley’s face.

{The face disappears, and the door is normal again.  Scrooge looks at it closely.  He shakes his head and steps through the door.  He lights a candle and looks cautiously about.}

Scrooge: It must have been my imagination.  Surely it was caused by the shadows.  It was just silly.  

{Scrooge goes behind a screen and prepares for bed, dressing in his nightshirt.  He talks as he dresses to keep the scene moving.}

Scrooge: My door knocker is casting strange shadows.  I think I need to get a new one.  That one scared the Dickens out of me.

{When he finishes, he comes out and sits down on his bed and blows on the candle, but it doesn’t go out.  He does this a few more times when the chamber bell starts to ring.  Scrooge stares at it.  Other bells and other sounds could join in.  Finally, they all cease, and it is quiet.}  

Scrooge:  Humbug!

{He lies down.  A door slams.  A light flash effect occurs.  Marley, a ghost, enters, dragging his chains.  He pauses at Scrooge’s bed.  Scrooge sits up angrily.}

Scrooge: Can a man not have any peace and quiet? {He looks up and sees Marley.}  How now.  What do you want with me?

Marley:   Much.

Scrooge:  Who are you, and why do you intrude in my house?

Marley:  Ask me who I was.

Scrooge: All right, then.  Who were you?

Marley:  In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley.

Scrooge: {Doubtful and sarcastic} Jacob, you don’t look at all well. {Patting a chair}  Have a seat?

Marley:  You don’t believe in me.

Scrooge: I don’t.

Marley:  Why do you doubt your senses?  You always considered yourself a sensible man, if I recall.

Scrooge:  But little thing affects my senses. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be a bit of undigested beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. {A slight sarcastic laugh to quell his nervousness}  There might be more of gravy than of the grave about you!

{At this Marley raises a frightful cry, and shakes his chain with a dismal and appalling noise.}

Scrooge: {Trembling in fear} Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?

Marley:  Worldly man, do you believe in me?

Scrooge:  I must, for I can no longer doubt my senses. But why do you come to me?

Marley:  It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world and witness what it might have shared on earth and turned to happiness.

Scrooge: But, Jacob, why are you fettered so?

Jacob:  I wear the chain I forged in life.  I made it link by link and yard by yard.  Of my own free will, I girded it about me in life, unknown of its burden, and in death it continues with me.  Is its pattern strange to you? {Scrooge leans close to look at it, nodding his head, realizing the chain is made of money, money boxes and the like.  Instantly, Marley throws a strand of the chain about Scrooge’s neck and its weight drops him to his knees.} You have your own chain, Ebenezer.  It was as heavy as mine the day I died, heavily binding your soul to that which is of no worth, and you have labored on it seven more years.  Yours will be heavier, more pondorous, and harder to bear.

Scrooge: {Choking from the weight of the chain around his neck}  Jacob, Speak comfort to me.

{Marley, emotional, speaks with compassion and falls to his knees beside Scrooge, and leans his head against him.}

Marley:  I have none to give, for compassion was a stranger to me in life and is not my companion in death.  {A clock dongs.  Marley unwraps his chains from Scrooge, who stands, and still holds his hand to his throat as if still feeling their weight.}  Little time is left to me here, Ebenezer.  I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. In life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow confines of our money-changing hole; now weary journeys lie before me.

Scrooge: You must travel slowly, weighed down by chains.  Where do your travels take you?

Marley:   Captive bound and double ironed I travel quickly on the wings of the wind, and yet it is never enough.   I travel through incessant torture and remorse where there is no rest or peace, seeing what good I could have done in my little sphere of life.   I have learned too late that mortal life is too short for its vast means of usefulness, and that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused!  I see those I could have helped if I would, but the power to do so is no longer mine.  Blind to value of life.  Yet such was I! Oh, such was I!

Scrooge:  But, Jacob, you were always such a good man of business.

Marley: {Howling}  Business!  Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business! At this time of year I and those like me suffer most. The misery we feel as we would seek to interfere, for good, in human matters, but we have lost the power forever.  Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me? {Marley pauses briefly as if thinking.  Suddenly, bells start to toll eleven as if his thoughts return to the present}  Hear me, Ebenezer, my time is nearly gone!

Scrooge:  I will.  But don’t be hard on me.

Marley: Know that, though you cannot see me, I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day.  That is no light part of my penance, as I watch you building your own chains day after dismal day.  I am here tonight to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A chance and hope I have procured for you, Ebenezer.

Scrooge:  You were always a good friend to me.  Thank you.

Marley:  You will be haunted by three Spirits.

Scrooge: {Trembling and fearful} Haunted?  Oh, please Jacob, not haunted, I...

Marley: {Interrupting and speaking forcefully}  Without their visits you cannot hope to shun the path I tread. Expect the first to-morrow, when the bell tolls twelve.  Expect the second...

Scrooge:  Couldn’t I take them all at once, and have it over with, Jacob, so that...?

Marley: {Glaring and interrupting as he continues}  Expect the second on the next night at the same hour. The third upon the next night when the last stroke of twelve has ceased to vibrate.  {As Scrooge turns away and contemplates this scary proposition, Marley gathers his chains and moves to the edge of the stage.  He stops and turns around.} And, Ebenezer, look to see me no more, but look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between us!

{Marley leaves the stage with a flashing light effect.  Scrooge turns and sees nothing.}

Scrooge: Bah, Humbug!

{He climbs back into his bed, closes the curtains, then peeks out and looks around before closing them again.}

BLACKOUT


Act I Scene 3

{A slight light comes up on Scrooge’s bed.  The clock starts to toll.  At about the fifth dong he opens his curtains a little and looks out.  As it continues, he sits up.}

Scrooge: Ten, eleven, twelve.  But it was after 2:00 when I went to bed.  Why, it isn’t possible that I could have slept through a whole day and far into another night. It isn’t possible that anything has happened to the sun, and this is twelve noon, even in the thick smog of London.  It’s either the clock got some ice in it, or it’s just...  Oh, bah, humbug.  All that Marley’s ghost nonsense must have been a silly dream and got me all flustered.  

{Scrooge climbs back in his bed and closes the curtains.  There is a ticking of clocks and watches growing incessantly louder until a bright flash of light, and the ghost of Christmas past (Past) appears.  She is unearthly, but beautiful.  She wears a crown of holly, and a dim light emanates from the crown.  She stands with her back to Scrooge.  All of her movements are slow and deliberate.  Scrooge opens his curtains and sees her.}

Scrooge:  Are you the Spirit whose coming was foretold to me?

Past: {In a soft, gentle voice}  I am.

{She turns to him.  He steps forward and looks at her.}

Scrooge:  Who, and what, are you?

Past:  I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Scrooge:  Long Past?

Past:  No. Your past.  I am your courier, your timekeeper, your diary, your memory, and your history.

Scrooge:  What is that light that comes from your crown?

Past: It is the light of life and living.  Its glow grows brighter when life is lived with the purpose for which it is meant.

Scrooge: You should put a hat on so as not to bother those who desire to sleep.

Past:  What?  Would you so soon put out with worldly hands what little light I give, what little light you have found in your life? Is it not enough that you are one of those whose passions made me, through whole trains of years, to wear it low upon my brow so that my light is dim and almost nonexistent?

Scrooge: I mean no offense.  Please tell me, what brings you here?

Past:  Your welfare, your happiness, your education, your salvation.

Scrooge: {Suspicious, but thinking about what Marley said} My salvation?  And just how much will this salvation cost me?

Past: Take heed.  Come with me.  Quickly.

Scrooge: But, Spirit, I am mortal.  I’m liable to fall.

{He puts on his slippers and his scarf.}

Past: {Touching a hand to Scrooge’s chest}  Bear but a touch of my hand there and you shall be upheld in more than this!

Scrooge: {Suspicious} Is that so?

Past: {Holding out her hand} Take my hand.

{Scrooge cautiously, slowly, reaches out and takes her hand.  As soon as he does so, the bedroom fades away.}


Act I Scene 4

{The bedroom disappears, and a bench is brought on.  A boy is sitting on the bench.}

Scrooge:  Good Heavens!  I know this place. I was a boy here!

Past: Your lip is trembling.  And what is that upon your cheek?  A tear?

Scrooge: {Quite emotional} It’s a pimple.

Past:  You recollect the way?

Scrooge:  Remember it?  I could walk it blindfolded.

Past: It is strange to have forgotten it for so many years!

Scrooge: {Looking around himself}  It is my old school, and it is deserted.

Past:  The school is not quite deserted.  A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still as all others have gone home for Christmas

Scrooge: {Sees the boy on the bench} Spirit, the boy?

Past: It is you, Ebenezer. {Scrooge waves his hand in front of the boy} No, he can’t see you.  These are but shadows of the things that have been.  They have no consciousness of us.

Scrooge: {Hardly able to hold back tears}  Every Christmas at the boarding school, all of the other children would go home and leave me alone in the cold with very little to eat.

Past: Every Christmas?

Scrooge: Yes.  Every Christmas.

Boy Ebenezer: {As if the middle of singing} ...to save us all from Satan’s power when we have gone astray.  Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy.  Oh tidings of comfort and joy.

{Boy Ebenezer bows his head and cries softly out of loneliness.}

Scrooge: {Putting his hand in his pocket and muttering}  I wish...but it’s too late now.

Past:  What is the matter?

Scrooge: Nothing. Nothing. There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something, that’s all.

Past: No one ever came?

Scrooge: No one.

Past: Really?

{The bench is taken off.  Boy Ebenezer leaves, and Young Ebenezer replaces him, standing on the stage.  Fan comes in from behind Young Ebenezer and puts her hands over his eyes.}

Fan: Guess who?

Scrooge: Fan!

{He turns around and they embrace.}

Past: Did you forget?

Scrooge: It’s Fan!  It’s my little sister, Fan.  Spirit, do you see her?

Fan: I’ve brought a present for you, Ebenezer.

{She holds out a package, and he unwraps it.  He pulls out a hand knitted scarf identical to the one Scrooge is wearing, but new.  Scrooge looks down and fingers the one he is wearing and looks back at the one Young Ebenezer has.}

Young Ebenezer: A scarf.  It’s beautiful.

Fan: {Taking it and wrapping it around Young Ebenezer’s neck.} I knitted it myself, just for you.  When you wear it, you can think of it like I am hugging you, and it will always keep you warm.

Young Ebenezer: Thank you, Fan.  I will treasure it always.

Fan: I have another surprise.  I have come to bring you home for Christmas, dear brother! {She laughs}  To bring you home, home, home!

Young Ebenezer:  Home, Fan?  But Father hates me.  He sent me away to boarding school and has never let me come home since I was young.

Fan:  Father is so much kinder than he used to be; that home’s like Heaven! He spoke so gently to me one dear night when I was going to bed, and I asked him if you might come home for Christmas.  

Young Ebenezer: Were you not afraid to speak to him about me?

Fan: I love you, Ebenezer, and love is stronger than fear.  And Father said yes, and sent me in a coach to bring you. And you’re to be a man and be apprenticed and never come back here again.  But first, we’re to be together all the Christmas long, and have the merriest time in all the world.

Young Ebenezer:  You are quite a woman, Fan!

{She laughs, and hugs him, and then grabs his hand and eagerly drags him toward the side of the stage.  As they go off, Scrooge follows them to the side of the stage, then pauses briefly.  Finally, he turns and speaks with great emotion.}  

Scrooge: She was always a delicate creature, was Fan.

Past:  But she had a big heart.

Scrooge:  So she had.

Past:  She died a woman, did she not?  And had, as I recall, children.

Scrooge:  One child.

Past:  Your nephew.  Fred, isn’t it?

Scrooge: Oh, that stupid, overly cheerful, lovesick fool. {Scrooge’s voice fades at the end.}
 
Past: And why do you despise him so?

Scrooge: Who says I do?

Past: You know you cannot fool me, for I am your past.  You can only fool yourself.

Scrooge: Perhaps I dislike him because he is so simple and happy over silly things.

Past: Like Christmas?  But when he was young, you loved him.  You played with him and he adored you.

Scrooge: But that was before...

Past: Before what?

Scrooge: {Thinking as if to himself} Before Fan died.  

Past: And you blame Fred for her death?

Scrooge: {Speaking rapidly as the painful memory returns} When he was fourteen he became sick.  Fan took care of him night and day until her own health failed.  {Scrooge starts to cry}  She gave her life to save his.

Past: And you blame Fred because she loved him enough to give her life for him?

Scrooge: I haven’t thought about it before.

Past: It is not her son’s fault she died.  And the goodness of her heart yet lives in her son’s.  If you truly love her, can you not love him for whom she gave her life?

{Scrooge stands there for a moment, but does not answer.  When he does speak, it is to change the subject.}

Scrooge: Please, Spirit.  I’m ready to go home.  I’ve seen enough.

Past: Enough!  You don’t know the meaning of the word. {She grabs his arm and forcefully drags him with her.} Come!


Act I scene 5

{The stage is set with a small table.  Scrooge and Past walk around the stage and as they do Scrooge looks around him and starts to smile.  Young Ebenezer is there sweeping and then takes the broom off.  Scrooge sees his younger self, Ebenezer, and others who start to come in.}

Past:  You know this place?

Scrooge: {Smiling}  Know it!  This is old Fezziwig’s.  I was apprenticed here.

{Fezziwig comes in.}

Scrooge:  Why, it’s old Fezziwig! Bless his heart; it’s Fezziwig alive again!

Fezziwig:  Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!

{Ebenezer and Dick, the two apprentices, come in.}

Scrooge:  Bless me, it is Dick Wilkins. He was very much attached to me, was Dick.

Fezziwig:  Yo ho, my boys!  No more work to-night. Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Clear away, my lads, and let’s have lots of room here! Hi-ho, Dick! Chirrup, Ebenezer!

{They quickly clear away and make everything ready, bringing in only a table to put food on.   In comes a fiddler.  Mrs. Fezziwig, smiling and happy, comes in with two or three daughters, and Belle can join them.  The cook comes in carrying food, which people move to the table off and on to eat.}

Fezziwig: It is time to dance.

{Music starts to play.  Fezziwig goes to Mrs. Fezziwig, and they start the dance, and others join.  Young Ebenezer dances happily with Belle, and Scrooge dances along, too.}  

Scrooge: Old Fezziwig was the greatest.

Past: Why?  It is only a small matter to make these silly folks so happy.

Scrooge: {Upset} Small!?  It’s not small.

Past:  Why is it not? He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money: three or four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves praise?

Scrooge: {Angrily, speaking without thinking} It isn’t that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil.  His power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count them up? The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.

{Past looks at him, and suddenly Scrooge realizes what he has just said.}

Past:  What is the matter?

Scrooge:  Nothing.

Past: There is something, I think?

Scrooge: No. I should just like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now. That’s all.



Act I Scene 6

{The stage is cleared, and a bench is put on.  Ebenezer is sitting there now with Belle.  As Scrooge watches Ebenezer and Belle, he begins to realize where he is and what is happening and he looks on with increased pain, shaking his head as if trying to stop what will happen.}

Belle:   What I have to say to you will matter little to you, for another idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.

Ebenezer:  What idol has displaced you?

Belle:  A golden one.

Ebenezer: You speak the foolishness of the world.  There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!
 
Belle: You fear the world too much.  I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until gain, alone, engrosses you.

Ebenezer: Even if I have grown so much wiser, what of it? I am not changed towards you.

Belle: When we committed to marriage, we were both poor and content to be so, until, in good season, we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry. But you are not the man you were then.

Ebenezer: {Growing annoyed}  I was a boy.

Belle: We were young then and one of heart, but now we are two.  I release you from our commitment.   

Ebenezer: {Angry} Have I ever sought release?

Belle: Not in words, but in your desires of life.  Marriage is not a business, Ebenezer.  It is so much more, and to view it as such would be a poor bargain for both of us.  What made my love of any worth or value in your sight is no longer there.  If you did not know me and were to meet me now, you would not try to win me.

Ebenezer:  You think not?

Belle:  I would gladly think otherwise if I could, but I know if you were free today, you would not  choose a poor girl like me, for you now weigh everything by gain.  I release you, Ebenezer, with all of the love I have for the man you once were, but no longer are.  May you be happy in the life you have chosen!

{Bell reaches out and kindly touches him, then sadly turns and leaves.}

Ebenezer: {As Belle leaves, almost sneering} I will.

Scrooge: {Yelling at Ebenezer} Go after her!  You stupid young fool, go after her! {Turning back to Past}  Spirit, why do you delight to torture me so? {Then turning back to Ebenezer, in obvious anger and disgust.} You worthless young fool, go after her!

Ebenezer: {Turning to Scrooge as if he senses him.} Bah, humbug.

{Ebenezer exits, and Scrooge falls on his knees overcome with emotions, crying, and speaks as if the words pain him now as he remembers them.}

Scrooge: Humbug.  Humbug. {After a short pause, he speaks again, begging to Past without looking at her.} Spirit, please, please take me home.

Past: I must show you one shadow more!

Scrooge:  No more, please!  I can’t stand to see more!

{Past takes his arm and leads him around the stage, and he never looks up, struggling to deal with the pain.  The bench is cleared away, and the stage is set with a couch, chair, fireplace, sitting chairs, or whatever is desired to make it look like a living room.}


Act I Scene 7

{In this living room scene, five or six children, the younger ones dressed in night gowns or night shirts, are  running, playing, and making lots of commotion.  The oldest girl is much calmer, played by the same girl that played Belle in the last scene, but this time her name is Mary.  Older Belle is a middle aged woman, as close in looks to Belle in the last scene as possible or what an older Belle would look like.  Belle and Mary are sitting, visiting, laughing, and happy.}

Scrooge: {Looking at Mary} Belle?

Past: No, she is not Belle.  Her mother is Belle.

{John, Older Belle’s husband and the children’s father, calls out.}

John: I’m home.

{All of the young children rush to the side of the stage and immediately come back on with John, who has his arms full of presents.  They all start clamoring for them and wanting to know what is in them.  He stacks his load on the floor.}

John: No, I shall not tell. {The children groan.} There shall not be one present opened tonight. {The children groan again.} And there shall not be one present opened tomorrow by any child who stays up one moment longer. {He laughs.} Now, off to bed with all of you.

{All of the children except for Mary rush off stage as if going to bed.  He sits in a chair, and Mary lovingly leans against her father, something that tears at Scrooge’s heart.}

Older Belle: {Laughing} You big meany.

John: We wouldn’t want sleepy children on Christmas, now, would we? {Slight pause}  Belle, I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon.

Older Belle:  Who was it?

John:  Guess!

Older Belle:  How can I? {Pause} I know, how about Mr. Scrooge?

John:  Mr. Scrooge it was. I passed his office window; and as it was not shut up, and he had a candle inside.  I could scarcely help seeing him. His partner lies upon the point of death, I hear; and there he sat alone. Quite alone in the world, I do believe.

Older Belle: I feel sorry for him.  He has no one.

John: That is true.  He has had his partner, but once his partner dies, Mr. Scrooge will be alone.

Older Belle: Even with his partner, he never truly had anyone.  Marriage is so much better than just business.

John: {Reaches his hand to her and she takes it} He can have his money.  I’d rather have you.

{As John and Belle continue to pantomime speaking, Scrooge turns to Past.}

Scrooge: {Angry}  Spirit, remove me from this place!

Past: There is nothing worse than the regret of what might have been, is there?  Belle could have been your wife, and the children could have been your children.  But instead, you chose to bestow your affection on cold, unfeeling money.  You love it, but does it love you in return?

Scrooge: I can stand this no more!

Past:  I told you these were shadows of the things that have been.  That they are what they are, do not blame me!  You chose them.

Scrooge:  Remove me!  Now!  I cannot bear it!

To read more, please order the script.