About the Play:

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge & Marley is a full-length Christmas play adapted for the stage by Israel Horovitz from the novel by Charles Dickens. This is the classic tale of the redemption of the original miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, as seen through the eyes of the ghost of Jacob Marley. An ingenious and theatrically dazzling adaptation of this great classic, A Christmas Carol: Scrooge & Marley is a delightful twist on the favourite holiday tale by Charles Dickens.

A Christmas Carol is famous the world over. The often bizarre and ultimately heart-warming story of Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and the others needs no detailing here. Israel Horovitz follows the Dickens original scrupulously but, in bringing it to life on the stage, adds elements of inventiveness and brilliant theatricality which enhance and strengthen its timeless virtues. This two-act, 100-minute version features Jacob Marley, Scrooge's deceased and disgraced partner, as the narrator throughout, allowing his presence to guide the audience through the trials and eventual redemption of Ebeneezer Scrooge. Marley also stage-manages the other ghosts and plays tricks on Scrooge. The result is a theatre piece of unique eloquence, which will delight audiences of all ages, and draw forth the best efforts of all engaged in its presentation.

Israel Horovitz's adaptation of A Christmas Carol was commissioned by Center Stage, in Baltimore, Maryland, and first produced there in 1978 with great critical and popular success. The play features flexible casting and has become a popular choice for school and community theatre productions.

Cast: 38 characters: 6 female, 23 male, 3 girls, 6 boys, plus extras; dancers, musicians (doubling possible, minimum of 22 players)

What people say:

"…Horovitz's particular talent seems to lie in maintaining remarkable fidelity to the artist whose work he adapts, losing none of the original flavor which marked their greatness. At the same time, he enlivens the work, enhancing its presentation to a modern American theatre audience in a most sublime manner." — Catholic Review

"Children will find it engrossing, but their parents will love it." — Baltimore Sun

"…a glorious success." — Baltimore News American

"Horovitz's passionate adaptation, it's homespun and forthright and enlists our imagination." — The Chicago Reader

About the Playwright:

Israel Horovitz (1939-2020) was an American playwright, director, and actor who first came to prominence in the counterculture melting pot of Greenwich Village in the winter of 1967-68, with four critically acclaimed plays produced Off Broadway. Since then, nearly 70 Horovitz plays have been performed throughout the USA, and dozens have been translated and performed in as many as 25 languages, worldwide. He won numerous awards, including the OBIE (twice), the Emmy, Priz du Plaisir de theatre (for Line In Paris), Prix du Jury (Cannes Film Festival), the New York Drama Desk Award, and Award in Literature of The American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Eliot Norton Prize, and many others.