A Christmas Carol: Dickens at the Pavilion

Bah humbug! It’s coming up to Christmas, and the Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill, will celebrate the festive season in 2012 with a stage production of Charles Dickens’ famous novel A Christmas Carol.

Ebeneezer Scrooge takes no delight in Christmas. Really, he takes no delight in anything. He begrudges his overworked employees an extra lump of coal in the bitter cold and resents having to give them a holiday on Christmas Day. He rudely refuses his nephew’s invitation to Christmas lunch, and chases off two kind-hearted souls raising money for the poor. Ebeneezer Scrooge is a cold, mean, lonely man.

And then, on Christmas Eve, he’s visited by the ghost of his dead business partner and given one last chance to change. But will he take it?

Charles Dickens tale of the redemption of a mean spirited businessman at Christmas has become synonymous with the season these days, but back in Victorian England when it first appeared the Christmas celebration was fading as a yearly event until this short story made its debut as a present from Dickens to a friend.

“What people might not realise is we owe our Christmas experience today to this amazing work of Dickens,” director Bernard Teuben comments. “Christmas was actually disappearing around the world until Dickens reinvigorated people with its true meaning.”

With 2012 being the 200^th Anniversary of Dickens’ birth, it is an auspicious and appropriate year for this heart-warming tale to be again brought to life. Playing at the Pavilion Theatre in Castle Hill, this Neil Bartlett stage adaptation uses many of Dickens own words to present the colour characters of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchett and sundry ghosts to life (so to speak). For its director the aim is simple “We aim to say something about the meaning of Christmas to everyone who comes along.”

A Christmas Carol, one of Dickens’ most famous and beloved stories, is brought to life at the Pavilion Theatre by director Bernard Teuben and an ensemble cast full of energy and seasonal high spirits.

Suitable for all ages, A Christmas Carol opens on Friday, November 23rd and runs until Saturday, December 15^th. The Pavilion Theatre is located on Doran Drive, Castle Hill Showground, Castle Hill. Tickets are $25, concession $20, and are available from the box office on 9634 2929, or online at www.paviliontheatre.org.au