kimberley lynne.

A Dickens of a Carol

Production history: commissioned by Baltimore Shakespeare Festival (BSF) in January 2003 to write a one-man version of Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol. Two productions produced by BSF in December 2003 and December 2004 under AEA SPT contract. Published November 2009 by Apprentice House Publishing and Kimberley Lynne owns the dramatic rights. Rep Stage produced it at the Belmont Mansion in December 2009 under AEA SPT contract.

In October 1843, Charles Dickens was, at 31, unhappy with his wife, distanced from his children and haunted by his dead sister-in-law and the memory of his bleak childhood. He was on the brink of estrangement with his father, and he was obsessed by a necessity to work and generate more income. When he was commissioned to write a pamphlet on workhouse conditions, he instead dreamt A Christmas Carol, and, for the first time in his astounding literary career, he wrote not in installment but the entire novella in a very short period of time.

Dickens' family and friends documented that he dreamt entire chapters, acted out his stories and was possessed by his characters while writing them. He would stand in front of the mirror for hours, contorting his face, becoming his myriad of characters. He would jump between the reality of his family and the reality of his story. Within the framework of Dickens composing, the redemptive tale of A Christmas Carol is told, and the audience's imagination brings the ghosts to life.

Set: Dickens' study in Devonshire Terrace house

Time: two acts, 40 minutes each

Actors: In the BSF productions, the actor portraying Charles Dickens also portrayed Catherine and Charley Dickens and all the characters in A Christmas Carol. In the Rep Stage production, an additional actor portrayed Catherine, Charley and the ghosts.

Reviews: “Playwright Kimberley Lynne's one-person show deftly combines events from Dickens' life with scenes from A Christmas Carol, using the biographic elements to explain what may have led the British author to write this tale. The death of his beloved sister-in-law Mary haunted Dickens throughout his life, as did his family's time in a debtor's prison. Lynne uses these circumstances to punctuate his interest in spirits and the horrors of poverty, themes that run throughout his work, and she lets Dickens describe his feelings in his own words using passages from his actual letters.”—Anna Ditkoff, Baltimore City Paper, December 2003