A NOISE WITHIN HOLIDAY 2021 AUDIENCE GUIDE Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Adapted for the stage by Geoff Elliott Directed by Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott December 2–23, 2021 Edu Pictured: Geoff Elliott and Deborah Strang. Photo by Craig Schwartz. TABLE OF CONTENTS Character Map ......................................3 Synopsis ...........................................4 Quotes from A Christmas Carol .........................5 About the Author Charles Dickens ......................6 Dickensian Timeline: Important Events in Dickens’ Life and Around the World ....8 Dickens’ Times: Victorian London .......................9 Poverty: Life & Death ................................12 Currency & Wealth. .16 About: Scenic Design. .18 About: Costume Design. .19 A Christmas Carol: Overall Design Concept ..............20 Additional Resources . .21 About A Noise Within. 22 A NOISE WITHIN’S EDUCATION PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY: Ann Peppers Foundation The Green Foundation Capital Group Companies Kenneth T. and Michael J. Connell Foundation Eileen L. Norris Foundation The Dick and Sally Roberts Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Coyote Foundation Steinmetz Foundation The Jewish Community Dwight Stuart Youth Fund Foundation 3 A NOISE WITHIN 2021/22 SEASON | Holiday 2021 Audience Guide A Christmas Carol CHARACTER MAP CHRISTMAS PAST CHRISTMAS PRESENT CHRISTMAS YET TO COME EBENEZER SCROOGE The protagonist: a bitter old creditor who does not believe in the spirit of Christmas, nor does he possess any sympathy for the poor. JACOB MARLEY GHOST OF CHRISTMAS GHOST OF CHRISTMAS “Dead to begin with.” PRESENT YET TO COME Ebenezer Scrooge’s former A lively spirit who spreads Scrooge fears this ghost’s business partner, who died seven Christmas cheer. premonitions. years prior. His ghost appears before Scrooge on Christmas Eve to warn of him of the Three Spirits, and urges him to choose a FRED OLD JOE, MRS. DILBER, new path in life. Scrooge’s optimistic, kind-hearted LAUNDRESS, AND nephew; he overlooks UNDERTAKER’S MAN Scrooge’s negativity. In the future, they meet to share GHOST OF CHRISTMAS in the profits of selling-off PAST Scrooge’s belongings. Invokes images from Scrooge’s past to serve as a reminder BOB CRATCHIT that Christmas once meant Scrooge’s overworked and something to him. underpaid clerk. Although he and OTHERS: his family struggle for money, they carry on and look towards the NARRATOR future. MR. & MRS. FEZZIWIG Kindly provides story information Mr. Fezziwig was Scrooge and to you, our spectators. Marley’s former boss at the MRS. CRATCHIT warehouse. A generous man Bob’s wife. who held Christmas parties GENTLEPEOPLE, for his staff every year. TINY TIM CAROLERS, PARTY Bob’s youngest son; equipped GUESTS, SERVANTS, ETC. with a loving spirit. BELLE Scrooge’s former fiancée; he chose greed over love. PETER, MARTHA, BELINDA, & THE LITTLE CRATCHITS Other Cratchit children. FAN Scrooge’s older sister and Fred’s mother. 4 A NOISE WITHIN 2021/22 SEASON | Holiday 2021 Audience Guide A Christmas Carol SYNOPSIS By Charles Dickens Adapted for the stage by Geoff Elliott ON A FRIGID Christmas Eve, a Scrooge on a journey to the a sequence of mysterious scenes miserly old man named Ebenezer Christmases of his childhood. relating to an unnamed man’s recent Scrooge sits in his counting house, He sees himself as a lonely child, death. Scrooge sees businessmen keeping an eye on his clerk, Bob an apprentice to Fezziwig the discussing the dead man’s riches Cratchit. The stingy Scrooge refuses merchant, and as a young man who and some thieves pawning his to spend money on heating coals, loses his sweetheart Belle’s love to personal effects for cash. Scrooge, so poor Cratchit shivers in the dim his greed. Tortured, Scrooge begs anxious to learn the lesson of his room. Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, the ghost to take him home. latest visitor, begs to know the drops by and wishes him a Merry name of the dead man. After Christmas, though Scrooge replies The Ghost of Christmas Present pleading with the ghost, Scrooge with a bitter “Bah! Humbug!” Later, takes Scrooge through London finds himself in a churchyard, the two gentlemen enter his office to unveil the Christmas holiday as spirit pointing to a grave. Scrooge and ask him to donate money for it will unfold that year. Scrooge looks at the headstone and is a fund that will feed the hungry. watches the large and bustling shocked to read his own name. He Scrooge feels no pity for the plight Cratchit family prepare a miniature desperately implores the spirit to of those less fortunate and promptly feast in their meager home. He alter his fate, promising to renounce dismisses the gentlemen. At closing discovers Bob Cratchit’s crippled his insensitive, avaricious ways and time, Scrooge reluctantly gives son, Tiny Tim, a courageous boy to honor the Christmas spirit. He Cratchit the day off for Christmas. whose kindness and humility warms suddenly finds himself safely tucked Scrooge’s heart. The specter then in his bed. Scrooge returns home, where he whisks Scrooge to his nephew Fred’s lives in a house that belonged to his house to witness their Christmas Overwhelmed with joy at the deceased business partner, Jacob party. Scrooge finds the jovial chance to redeem himself, and Marley. Late at night, the sound of gathering delightful and pleads grateful that he has been returned dragging, metal chains announces with the spirit to stay until the very to Christmas Day, Scrooge rushes the arrival of The Ghost of Jacob end of the festivities. As the day out onto the street hoping to share Marley. Marley has a grave message progresses, the spirit ages, and we his newfound Christmas spirit. He for Scrooge. Because Marley lived see a noticeably older ghost. Prior sends a giant Christmas turkey to a greedy and selfish life, his ghost to his departure, the ghost reveals the Cratchit house and attends now wanders the Earth in heavy to Scrooge two starved children, Fred’s party, to the stifled surprise chains as punishment. He hopes he Ignorance and Want, living under of the other guests. As the years go can help Scrooge avoid the same his coat. He vanishes instantly as by, he holds true to his promise and fate. He tells Scrooge that three Scrooge notices a dark and hooded honors Christmas with all his heart: spirits will visit him, with the first figure approaching. he treats Tiny Tim as if he were arriving when the bell tolls one. his own child, provides gifts to the The Ghost of Christmas Yet To poor, and treats his fellow human As promised, the Ghost of Come, the spirit Scrooge fears beings with kindness, generosity, Christmas Past arrives, leading most of all, leads Scrooge through and warmth. ❖ 5 A NOISE WITHIN 2021/22 SEASON | Holiday 2021 Audience Guide A Christmas Carol 6 A NOISE WITHIN 2021/22 SEASON | Holiday 2021 Audience Guide A Christmas Carol ABOUT THE AUTHOR: CHARLES DICKENS CHARLES DICKENS, English writer of novels and short stories, was the second of eight children born to John and Elizabeth Dickens in Portsmouth, England on February 7, 1812. He is one of the most famous English novelists of the Victorian Era. As a young child, Dickens spent most of his time reading; he was also quite fond of theatricals, puppet plays, and had a natural singing voice. Due to Dickens’ father’s job, the family relocated several times until they settled in Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in London, where Bob Cratchit and his family dwell in A Christmas Carol. At the age of 12, Dickens’ father was sentenced to debtor’s prison, so young Charles left school and went to live with a family friend and work in a shoe-blacking factory. Dickens’ family, excluding his sister Fanny, all lived at the prison. Each Sunday, Charles visited the prison and witnessed the disgusting conditions in which London’s working poor were forced to live. After several months, an unexpected inheritance relieved Dickens’ father from his debt, and Charles eventually left the factory and returned to school. Still, Charles’ job gluing labels on bottles traumatized him, leaving a deep impression that would haunt him for the rest of his life. These difficult times inspired Charles Dickens to include many economic and child labor issues in his fiction. At age 15, Dickens’ father met with new financial difficulties, which caused Charles to leave school and seek permanent employment. Although his formal Dickens in New York, 1867, Wikipedia. education was limited, his enthusiasm for reading and his natural writing ability carried him far. He first worked as a clerk in a legal office, and later as a stenographer in the law courts of London. By 1832 he became a reporter for two London newspapers. In the following year, he began to contribute a series of impressions and sketches to various publications under the pen name “Boz.” The same year, Dickens began to write The Pickwick Papers in several monthly installments. This form of serial writing became a standard method of writing fiction in the Victorian Era. In fact, many of Dickens’ successful novels, such as Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickelby, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities began as magazine installments. In 1836, Dickens married Catherine Hogarth, the daughter of the editor of a London newspaper. Together they had ten children. 7 A NOISE WITHIN 2021/22 SEASON | Holiday 2021 Audience Guide A Christmas Carol In 1842, Dickens went on a five-month long lecture tour of America, speaking out strongly for the abolition of A Chronology of Dickens’ Major Works slavery and of other reforms, during which he wrote his travelogue, American Notes for General Circulation. 1836: Pickwick Papers 1848: The Haunted Man 1837: Oliver Twist 1849: David Copperfield Soon after his return to England, Dickens began to 1838: Nicholas Nickleby 1853: Bleak House write A Christmas Carol (1843), the first of three stories Dickens penned about Christmas (followed by The 1840: The Old Cottage 1854: Hard Times Chimes (1844) and The Cricket on the Hearth (1845).