by Ioana Strumelieva S3EN
To start the Christmas spirit at ESMOL, on the 14th of November 2022, the school was visited by the TNT theatre production. The theatre production played “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens for the students of S3-S7 in the English department. In less than two hours, a Christmas classic was performed on stage and enjoyed by everyone.
“A Christmas Carol” is one of Charles Dickens’ best known novels, which was published on the 19th of December 1843. At that time the play was written, Dickens was bankrupt and instead of drinking alcohol, he wrote and self- published “A Christmas Carol”.
Here is a short summary of this remarkable story:
On Christmas Eve, London is getting ready to celebrate, except the counting house of the old Ebenezer Scrooge. He refuses to spend money on heating coals, therefore his clerk, Bob Cratchit shivers from cold. Scrooge also refuses to give money to charity and is unkind to his nephew, Fred, who came to invite him to spend Christmas Eve with him and his family. “Bah! Humbug!” is his angry response to his nephew’s “Merry Christmas!”.
For Scrooge, Christmas Eve is just like every other day. However, when he returns to his cold apartment and prepares to go to bed, he is unexpectedly visited by the ghost of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley. As a punishment for Marley’s greediness, his spirit has been condemned to wander the Earth weighed down with heavy chains. Marley wants to spare Scrooge from sharing the same fate. Before the ghost of Marley disappears, he informs Scrooge that three ghosts will be visiting him.
The ghost of Christmas Past is the first to visit Scrooge. Scrooge is brought to the Christmases of his past. There he sees what an unhappy child he was and afterwards, how he lost the love of Belle, his fiancée, because he was more in love with money.
Next comes a giant in a green fur robe (depicted as a Christmas tree in the play), he is the spirit of Christmas Present. Invisible to the others, Scrooge walks through the streets of London and reaches the house of his clerk, Bob Cratchit. There he discovers Cratchit’s son Tiny Tim. Scrooge is impressed by the courage and kindness of the desperately ill, young boy. Afterwards, he is led to the house of his nephew, Fred, to witness the Christmas celebration, to which he was invited to. Towards the end, the spirit becomes noticeably older, showing that the time of the present quickly goes by.
The last spirit, the Christmas Yet to Come, leads Scrooge to a graveyard. There are thieves who trade valuables from a deceased person for money. Scrooge finds out that they were his valuables, and he is the deceased person. Scrooge is terrified by his future and begs the ghost to change the course of events.
The morning of Christmas day, the old, selfish Scrooge has been transformed to a kind new man. The ghost of Christmas past taught Scrooge that friendships and family are important. The ghost of Christmas present showed the joys and the hardships of others, and the ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, taught Scrooge that if he doesn’t change the course of events, he will end up like Marley.
The theater group consisting of five actors made a classic Christmas story easy to understand. Their original interpretation of the classic play was to include a narrator (Charles Dickens). They were able to perform “A Christmas Carol” in just under two hours and the students enjoyed it. The performers changed their way of speech and had facial expressions that complemented what was going on in the scene. The actors were able to quickly change from one character to another. Thanks to their excellent performance, the Christmas spirit came to our school. Overall TNT production gave a wonderful performance, and we hope we see them perform again next year!
