In December, the North Carolina Stage Company is the setting for a production offering a different take on a beloved holiday tale that has come to exemplify the Christmas spirit. Opening Wednesday, December 2, and running through Friday, December 20, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol gives the spirit of Ebenezer Scrooge’s stingy and cold-hearted partner a chance to redeem himself—as Scrooge is able to do in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Playwright, actor and director Tom Mula wrote the play based on his bestselling novella of the same name published in 1995.
“Tom Mula’s play picks up right where Dickens starts—’Marley was dead, to begin with’—and asks what happens to Marley after that,” says NC Stage artistic director Charlie Flynn-McIver. “He’s dead, weighed down by the chains he forged in life, and he’s given one night to get Scrooge to change or face a worse fate himself. It’s the same familiar Christmas Eve, but seen from the other side of the ledger, which gives the story a lot of new humor and heart even though audiences know how the original A Christmas Carol ends. It’s not just a retelling, but has its own set of surprises. When I read it, I was genuinely surprised and delighted with the ending. And moved by it as well.”
In this one-person show, a single actor plays all of the parts, from Marley and Scrooge to the Cratchits and the spirits. “It’s a real feat of storytelling, and it’s the kind of intimate, actor-driven theatre our 124-seat space was built for,” Flynn-McIver says.
Evening performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and on Friday, December 4. Matinee performances will be held at 2 p.m. on Sundays, and on Friday, December 11 and 18, and Saturday, December 12 and 19. Sliding scale admission (from $18.50 to $57.50) will be offered for all performances. The show is family-friendly, but recommended for children ages 10 and up since younger children may be frightened by some scenes.
Additional events include an Opening Night Champagne Toast on Saturday, December 5, following the performance, and a Post Show Conversation following the matinee performance on Friday, December 11.
North Carolina Stage Company is located at 15 Stage Lane, in downtown Asheville, with access off Walnut Street. Learn more and reserve tickets at NCStage.org.
