As I sit here once again this evening gazing at the candle on the table beside me, I am extremely tired. I feel as if I am a sputtering flame about to expire. I have been working intensely over the last week or so on the final rehearsals for my latest production at my school: my adaptation of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol.’ It is a play I have directed before, ten years ago, when it officially opened our new studio theatre. But rehearsals for this one have been very rushed especially as, these days, I normally prepare a production for late January, not late November.

As I have entered a slower pace of life, being officially retired, fast-paced directing is quite a contrast and a challenge! It is invigorating though, like a quick gulp of espresso coffee. I am still sharing my expertise with my students although at an accelerated pace! I am trying to add in layers to their performances, minute by minute rather than rehearsal by rehearsal. Like me they are coping with putting the play together quickly and I now feel we will ‘have a show’ for opening night on Wednesday.

I am very proud of my cast and, as I mentioned in my last blog, a production is a wonderful way of bringing people together. And that is important in our age of de-unification and fragmentation, as our exit agreement is signed off by the EU and tensions rise again between Russia and the Ukraine and on the US/Mexico border etc, etc.

What would Dickens have thought of it all? I am sure he would have cast a satirical eye over the whole Brexit farrago: Nigel and Boris are Dickensian characters in themselves without the aid of the pen of Mr. Dickens himself. But I doubt they would have been characters in ‘A Christmas Carol’ – ‘We wish you a Merry Brexit!’ – I don’t think so! And Mr Trump? What would he have written about him? ‘Mr Trump was all trumpery, a pedlar of lies and political quackery; an arch twitterer of fake news and notions; a tanned balloon of hot air in the ascendant over the White House, changing direction this way and that, to stay afloat.’

As I have been dashing through the 19 scenes of my production, I’ve had no time really to stop and think about the story itself. Of course I have directed it before and the story is so familiar anyway. Too familiar perhaps after all the film, TV, stage and musical versions. It has never been out of print since it was first published in 1843. It has been indelibly etched on the nation’s imagination for over 150 years.

It is strange to think, then, that in his letters, Dickens’ calls ‘A Christmas Carol’ his ‘little book’. It was indeed a short novel but was an immediate bestseller, going through 13 editions in a year and proved one of his most popular works on bookshelves and on the stage. He himself gave numerous public readings of an abridged version for his charities across the UK and in his final years, in the USA.

When he was writing his ‘little book’, the Christmas holiday season was only just beginning to be revived in this country. But it was Dickens’ ‘little book’ that re-invented Christmas for the Victorian public and all the festivities of the season: dancing, carols, family gatherings, good food and drink. He even made the little-used phrase ‘Merry Christmas’ (which appears in the book) popular again. A remarkable achievement and probably an unintentional one.

But why did he write it? Dickens was inspired to write the story after visits to the ‘Ragged School’ for street children in London’s East End. He was passionate that the Poor, especially children, should not be forgotten and should not continue to be victims of the complacent and powerful wealthy classes. Scrooge has great wealth but will not use it to help others and is a miserable man as a result. In the story he comes to realise that it is only in giving that we can truly be happy, truly be ourselves. When asked to donate something to help the Poor, he says ‘Are there no prisons, no workhouses – which I pay my taxes for?’ Today he might say, ‘Are there no aid agencies? Is there no welfare state? Are there no food banks?’ Dickens makes him the epitome of selfishness and complacency.

His lines are quite famous. But in rehearsal today I heard a line that sums up this complacency. It is said by the Ghost of Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s old partner, who comes to haunt him on Christmas Eve. Marley is doomed to travel the earth for the selfishness he committed in his life. He has a speech wishing he had made mankind his business instead of making money his business and he says: ‘When I was alive, why did I walk through crowds of human beings with my eyes turned down?’ Why did he look away in the face of human need?

Dickens used his talents, energy, connections and personal wealth to try to alleviate the sufferings of the Poor. Above all he used his writing to open the eyes of others. Dickens didn’t walk with eyes turned down. Neither should we. Then we will have kept Christmas well.

Ave atque vale – Hail and Farewell! Till the next blog.