This is the wrong season to be talking about it, but literally no adaptation of Christmas Carol will ever top this one stage adaptation I saw in 2018, and itās 100% because of the first scene of the play
Almost every Christmas Carol starts with the same scene: Christmas Eve, the day before Scrooge is visited by the three ghosts. This is the same scene that the rest of the audience - including myself - is expecting to see
The house lights go out. The stage is dark
A boy is singing:Ā āGod rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismayā¦ā
The sound of wind whistles through the dark of the theater.
āRemember Christ our savior was born on Christmas day, to save us all from Satanās powerā¦ā
The boy pauses. The wind picks up.Ā Somewhere in the audience, a child sounds upset
āā¦When we had gone astray. Oh tidingsā¦ā
The boyās voice fades away. The wind howls
The stage lights come on. Fog is floating across the stage. A deacon, two gentlemen, and Scrooge stand in the fog like islands in a sea
The wind howls. It makes the word,Ā āEbenezer,ā in a voice that shakes the floor
The deacon says:Ā āForasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take unto himself the soul of our departed Jacob Marleyā¦ā
āEbenezer,ā says the wind
Scrooge whips around at the sound. Fog coils around his feet
Nobody else on stage hears his name
āā¦We therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth-ā
āEarth,ā says the wind
āAshes,ā says the wind
āIn the certain hope of eternal life through our Lord Christ; who shall change-ā
āChangeā says the wind
āChangeā says the wind
ā-that it may be like unto His glorious body-ā
āChangeā says the wind
A church bell rings. Children are crying in the audience
One by one, the parishioners exit the stage. Scrooge is left alone with the coffin
He says a few words - laughs at his mishearing voices on the wind - and turns to leave
Scrooge pauses - and turns to look at the coffin
Lights flash. The coffin lid slams open, and the ghost of Jacob Marley, horrible, pale, and screeching, leaps out of the coffin, hands reaching out to Scrooge and howling -Ā
Lights flash and the stage goes dark. Children are screaming. Parents are screaming. IāmĀ screaming
The rest of the production was gorgeous, but I still maintain that the first scene was the greatest thing Iāve ever seen attached to any adaptation of Christmas Carol