A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Background Notes

by Soulpepper Associate Artist Paula Wing 

By the time he was thirty, Charles Dickens was a household name in the English-speaking world. His reputation rested on a solid foundation of four novels, each published as a serial: The Pickwick Papers (1836 – 37), Oliver Twist (1837 – 38), Nicholas Nickleby (1838 – 39), and The Old Curiosity Shop (1840).

While working on his next novel, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dickens read a government report describing the conditions of child labour in Britain. He was particularly sensitive to the plight of children: he himself had been sent to work twelve-hour days in a shoe polish factory only a few days after his twelfth birthday. Dickens initially intended to respond to the report with a pamphlet; he later changed his mind and instead composed A Christmas Carol, which was published in December of 1843.

The public’s response was swift and unequivocal. Reprints were ordered by Christmas Eve; by February 1844, at least eight theatrical productions had seen the light of day. "It seems to me a national benefit," William Thackeray wrote, "and to every man or woman who reads it a personal kindness."

Why does A Christmas Carol consistently strike a chord with its audience? An inkling may be found in G.K. Chesterton's assertion that the literary description of happiness as a state has been, by and large, a failure; he singles out Dickens’s Christmas tales as one of the few exceptions. "The beauty and the real blessing [of A Christmas Carol] lie in the great furnace of real happiness that glows through Scrooge and everything around him; that great furnace, the heart of Dickens."

The "heart" of Dickens permeates A Christmas Carol. During its composition, Dickens said that he "wept, and laughed, and wept again, and excited himself in a most extraordinary manner." When Scrooge's nephew describes Christmas as "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," we have a beautiful and perfect summation of Dickens's thought as a humanist and gift as a writer. If this statement sounds naïve to us, to the Victorians it must have been radical.

A Christmas Carol would become one of the cornerstones of Dickens's oeuvre, a potent hymn to humanism, the hope of redemption, and the power of the imagination; it is also one of the most compelling memento mori in the canon of literature. As for Dickens, his career never slowed down. He continued to produce work at an astonishing rate, including David Copperfield (1849 – 50), Bleak House (1852 – 53), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Great Expectations (1860 – 61). Starting in 1853, Dickens began touring extensively as a reader; A Christmas Carol was among his favourite (and most frequently used) pieces. On June 9, 1870, Dickens succumbed to a stroke.

His influence on future artists was enormous; George Santayana put it most succinctly: "I think Dickens is one of the best friends mankind has ever had."

Joseph Ziegler is a founding member of Soulpepper. He is an in-demand actor, director and teacher, as well as being a rabid baseball fan and the father of three boys: Tim, Charlie, and Henry (who appeared in the last Soulpepper incarnation of A Christmas Carol). He continues to be married to Nancy Palk, his first wife.

Paula Wing (PW): Even though you've done it before, I wonder, is it difficult to play an iconic character like Ebenezer Scrooge? There are so many characterizations of him out there. Alastair Sim's is particularly -

Joseph Ziegler (JZ): Oh I don't look at that ever! Can't be influenced. (laughter) The silhouette of the Scrooge we know is very clear: mean and tight-fisted, crabby. But he's also a good business man. He's known and respected in the business community as a man who drives a hard bargain. When Bob asks him at the very beginning of the play to give a break to poor family who's late with their payments, Scrooge says, "Money is my business. If you can't pay you suffer the consequences." It's stern but that attitude, that toughness has won him a stable, secure life.

PW: How do you build the journey of the character, again given that the audience knows every twist and turn already?

JZ: But Scrooge doesn't. In rehearsal we're focused on what he gets out of each revelation. In fact, that's one of the ways the play differs from the novel. On the page, when the Ghost of Christmas Past reveals the young Ebenezer, Scrooge weeps uncontrollably. He recalls the anguish of his father's rejection and he sees that it has haunted his whole life. On the page it's heartbreaking and touching but it doesn't stop the action. But on the stage, Scrooge is at the beginning of his journey, so he can't soften too much. If he cries at this first revelation, the audience sees an old man crying and on stage that means he's repented. If I cry there, the emotional journey of the main character is over! So I play it that Scrooge feels sorry for himself. The pain and the anguish are there. He sees how his childhood has affected him. But more has to be revealed to him before he can soften. It's still Dickens' story, but the theatre has different requirements.

PW: You've had a short rehearsal period but this is your fourth time around. It's in your bones by now, right?

JZ: Well I still go back and re-read the story occasionally but every time you play a part you play it moment by moment and even though it's the fourth time, we're still making discoveries in rehearsal.

PW: Can you share one with us?

JZ: Bob Cratchit is the most important character in the story. That's why we see him right at the beginning of the play. When the Ghost of Christmas Present brings Scrooge to the Cratchit house Scrooge doesn't even recognize it. How long has Bob worked for him and he doesn't even know where he lives, he's never been to Bob's house! Scrooge says to the Spirit: "What are we doing here?" He thinks Cratchit has nothing to do with him, nothing to do with his own story. But in fact Bob has everything to do with it because it's through the Cratchit family that Scrooge transcends his own self-absorption and comes to understand that living, really being in life, involves other people.

PW: I love the moment when Scrooge is introduced to the twin children Ignorance and Want. I read the other day that child poverty in Ontario is at twelve percent and I thought of this play. It's considered more sentimental than socially conscious but it has an underpinning of the author's moral outrage and passionate identification with the poor and powerless.

JZ: And it's not simply that at the end Scrooge will be "good" now. He realizes that life is a great gift. Earlier, when he says to the Spirit: "Tell me that Tiny Tim will live," he's acknowledging that even if you're disabled life is better than death. And of course yes, the play is completely applicable to us today. Look at America and the recent election. Barack Obama ran on the idea of helping other people. He said this nation is a nation of people struggling and they need a hand. There was so much backlash, people saying Obama wants to take away your money! You know, it's like defying gravity to help somebody else. We're all so involved in our own struggles, the weight of our own burden. But at the end, liberated from his selfishness, Scrooge says, "I feel light as a feather!" Concern for others is what makes him feel that.

PW: They say never act with animals or children. You're acting with several children here. Are you in danger? (laughter)

JZ: Oh I love working with kids. The thing is with children on stage, when they're at their best - like the children in this production - they're so natural. They really listen, they really react and so the audience is drawn to them. And all of the children I'm working with are great: eager, very professional.