A Christmas Carol Reviewed by Younger Son

A Christmas Carol

I saw this play at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights on December 10, 2006.

Genre: Holiday Classic Drama.

Setting: London, Early 1840’s Christmas Eve.

This play is about a mean old fellow named Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge hates Christmas. It is Christmas Eve and Scrooge is at work with his employee Bob Cratchit. It is closing time and Bob would like all of Christmas day off. Scrooge is furious, but grudgingly he let Bob off. Scrooge then is at his house eating dinner, when suddenly his old friend Jacob Marley came through his window all in chains. Jacob Marley has been dead for seven years that very night. Marley had gone to Scrooge to help him avoid the path that Marley had to take. “Three spirits shall haunt you”, Jacob said. Jacob had told Scrooge when the ghosts would come and then he had left.

So by now Scrooge was very frightened. Just as Marley had said,” Expect the first ghost tomorrow when the bell tolls one o’clock,” The first spirit had appeared. This spirit was the ghost of Christmas Past. The ghost then takes Scrooge to his old school where he was a young boy. While they were starring at Scrooge as a boy, Frances Fan Scrooge came into the room and told her older brother he could finally come back home. The young Scrooge was very pleased. The ghost now takes Scrooge to an old warehouse building were Scrooge’s old boss Mr. Fezziwig had thrown a Christmas party. Scrooge finds himself looking at an older version of him talking to Belle, Scrooges girlfriend. This is when Belle breaks up with Scrooge because he now only cares for money and not her. Scrooge now feels he has seen enough, he tells the spirit to take him home and suddenly he finds himself back in his bed.

Now Scrooge wakes and finds himself looking upon the ghost of Christmas Present. First the ghost takes Scrooge to the Cratchit household. Scrooge sees that they are all eating a
Christmas feast. Bob stands up and toasts Mr. Scrooge, the founder of the feast. Mrs. Cratchit gets angry and calls Scrooge a lot of names. Scrooge feels hurt when he hears all of those names. The ghost now takes Scrooge to his nephew’s house, and they are having a party. They begin to play a game, Fred was thinking of something and everyone else had to try and see if they can figure out what or who it is. Fred had come up with different names that made it seem it was a very mean creature, then when everyone had given up Fred’s wife says it was Scrooge and she was right. That hurt Scrooge a lot. Then suddenly Scrooge finds himself once again in his bed.

Scrooge awakens and finds the ghost of Christmas Future in his room. He is frightened of this ghost more than the others, but he knows that his purpose is to do him good. First the ghost takes Scrooge to a gloomy smelly run-down part of the town. Three people were selling things from a dead man to a shopkeeper. The ghost then takes Scrooge to a churchyard. The ghost points Scrooge to a grave and Scrooge looks down and sees that the writing says EBENEZZER SCROOGE. Scrooge weeps. Then he says to the ghost that he will honor Christmas and will always celebrate it. He asks if these things will change if he changes, but the ghost will not answer. The ghost disappeared and Scrooge finds he is back in his bed.

Scrooge is so happy to be in his room. He dances around his room and looks out the window spotting a little boy walking, he asks the boy what day it is. The boy replied that it is Christmas Day. He is so overjoyed that he asked the boy if he could go down to the store and tell the deliveryman to bring the prize turkey to his house. He said to him when he returns with the deliveryman he will give the boy a shilling and if he comes back in five minutes he will give him a half a crown. The deliveryman comes and tells the man to bring the prize turkey to Bob Cratchit. Scrooge then goes down to his nephew’s house and joins the party. The next morning and Bob comes to work late. Scrooge acts like he was his old self, but then he tells Bob that he will raise his salary. Scrooge kept his word and was a friend to all.

***** I give this play 5 out of 5 star. I liked this play very much because it shows people can change. My favorite character was Tiny Tim. I would like to play the parts of The Ghost of Jacob Marley, Fred, and Bob Cratchit. I think anybody would like to see this play.