Left to right: Daniel Robinson, Phil Perrin, Joshua Brennan, Kevin Shipley, Will Smith-Blyth and Jayden Smith.

A Christmas Carol

Paul Butler (standing) and Daniel Robinson.

We don't really need to tell you what this Christmas classic is about, do we? Lonely, embittered Ebenezer Scrooge has no use for Christmas, for his downtrodden assistant Cratchit, for his determinedly cheerful nephew or for anything else except money. But things change one Christmas Eve.

Daniel Robinson (left) and Bill Morrow.

Scrooge is haunted by the ghosts of his dead partner Jacob Marley, Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come. Faced with his own mortality and the evil results of his misanthropic, miserly ways, Scrooge is redeemed, reconciled with his nephew and his neighbours, and becomes a second father to his assistant's son, Tiny Tim.

“To our relief, Mr. Ludlam has decided to be Dickensian rather than Ludlamian. As promised, this is a faithful, authentic adaptation of the evergreen Christmas tale.... Most of the dialogue is straight from Dickens. What is missing is the description, and even the most avid reader occasionally skims some of that. This is a quick-step “Christmas Carol,” but it hits all of the highlights.” - The New York Times

Charles Dickens wrote the novella in 1843. Published on December 19, the first edition was sold out by Christmas Eve. A Christmas Carol has never been out of print since, and has been translated into several languages. The story has been adapted many times for film, stage, opera and other media.

Hayley Scanlan, Tessa Vaillancourt, Ryerson Huntley, Emily Maxam, Scott Arsenault, Isla Oatway, Lyra Branscombe, Daniel Robinson and Kevin Shipley

Charles Ludlam wrote this particular stage adaptation for his Ridiculous Theatrical Company, which staged it in 1979 with Ludlam playing Scrooge. Ludlam finds the humour as well as the pathos in this Victorian melodrama.

Daniel Robinson (left) and Isla Oatway.

Left to right: Scott Arsenault, Phil Perrin, Joshua Brennan, Hayley Hudson, Michelle McNichol, Daniel Robinson, Antonia Sidiropoulos, Will Smith-Blyth, Tessa Vaillancourt, Emily Maxam, Paul Butler, Allyson Archer, Bill Morrow.

Charles Ludlam

Charles Ludlam was born in Floral Park, N.Y., in 1943. His interest in theatre started early, with performing in community theatre and working backstage at a summer-stock company. In his senior year of high school he and a group of friends formed the Students' Repertory Theater in Northport, N.Y.

Ludlam then studied dramatic literature at Hofstra University, then joined a New York theatre company before forming his own Ridiculous Theatrical Company in 1967. He wrote many plays, often adaptations or mashups of gothic novels. His best known play, The Mystery of Irma Vep, a gothic drama in which two actors play seven roles.

In addition to a number of fellowships, he won six Obie Awards in his career, including a Sustained Excellence Obie Award two weeks before his death, and received the Rosamund Gilder Award for distinguished achievement in the theatre in 1986.

Ludlam, who was openly gay in an era when that was much rarer than today, contracted AIDS in 1987 and died soon after. His was the first front-page obituary in The New York Times to list AIDS as the cause of death.

We would like to acknowledge that this production takes place on the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples. We honour and give thanks to the land, its inhabitants and their enduring cultures.

Links