About the Play:

Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol is a full-length comedic drama by Tom Mula. You know the story of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. But what about his former business partner? Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol retells Charles Dickens' classic from the perspective of Scrooge's infamous partner, Jacob Marley, who returns from the afterlife to guide Scrooge to redemption.

Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol is the story of A Christmas Carol told from a different perspective. "Marley was dead, to begin with…" – and what happens to Ebenezer Scrooge's mean, sour, pruney old business partner after that? Chained and shackled, Marley is condemned to a hellish eternity. He's even given his own private tormentor: a malicious supernatural sidekick named Bogle who thoroughly enjoys his work. Desperate, Marley accepts his one chance to free himself: To escape his own chains, he must first redeem Scrooge. So begins a journey of laughter and terror, redemption and renewal, during which Scrooge's heart, indeed, is opened; but not before Marley – in this irreverent, funny, and ultimately, deeply moving story – discovers his own. Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol proves redemption is possible for anyone.

Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol premiered in 1998 as a solo version at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the four person version premiered in 2001 at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio. The play is regularly performed in regional, high school, college, and community theatre productions. All in all it has had over 400 productions, in 48 states, on four continents.

Cast: 1 female and 3 male, or 4 male, or 1 male (solo-performance version)

What people say:

""…Nothing less than an anthem to human nature, to imagination, and to the wonder of a compelling story told by a wondrous storyteller … among the best evenings of the theatrical year … As the tale slips down the throat like a hot chocolate, it also reveals new truths about the human condition … in Mula's warm and inviting hands, Marley becomes a tortured but poignant and ultimately redeemed soul who personally stage-manages Scrooge's reformation and finds his own redemption therein … an inspired and moving story that makes all that old stuff about ghosts and graves seem both immediate and revelatory … a splendid and invigorating evening." — Chicago Tribune

"…[Blends] a Dickens sensibility with a taste for fairy tales and contemporary wit…thoroughly charming – a holiday treat…." — Herald (Chicago)

"…Superbly written, marvelously performed…inspired writing…funny, moving, and hypnotic throughout…." — Chicago Sun-Times

"Delectably zany … inspired theatre … gives the audience cause to ache, and to laugh, and in the end, to exalt." — Citybeat

About the Playwright:

Tom Mula has been an award-winning playwright, actor, and educator for more than twenty-five years. He is an Artist-in-Residence at Columbia College in Chicago and teaches in the Theater Department.