I love performing in A Christmas Carol.
When I am fortunate enough to play Scrooge, as an actor I revel in the range of emotions the character goes through, the change from selfish ogre to generous and kind patron to those around him, and as the story implies to assist those around him in what ways he can, AND to assist ALL the children living in ignorance and want ALL around the world.
Regardless of what part I play (Fezziwig seems like a juicy part to me), I still love to be part of the message of this show. I can't think of a more special and important Christmas message.
Here is the message: We need to care for each other or we are doomed.
What good does all the money in the world do us, if we have earned it by impoverishing others? Who are we if we pay our employees whatever little the social and economic system lets us get away with, knowing and not caring that they will not have enough to get by on?
Scrooge learned through the Cratchit family the harsh realities of his disregard and mistreatment of those he employed. He observed their meager existence, and the vulnerabilities and lack of decent health care Tiny Tim and the family had to endure. He reformed and began to treat Bob Cratchit as a fellow human being and not just as a cog in his profit-generating wheel.
Scrooge learned through Marley that "mankind was his business". That if his firm and activities were not contributing to the profit of his firm, but also to the "profit" and welfare of mankind as a whole, then he was accomplishing nothing.
Scrooge learned through the Ghost of Christmas Past all the real human emotion, contact and love he had given up in his worship of the "Mammon" idol.
Scrooge learned through the Ghost of Christmas Present of the joy he was missing, of how the Cratchits loved each other despite their meager resources, how Tiny Tim would suffer because of those limited resources, and how children all over the world were being hurt and left out by an unnecessarily cruel and selfish system. That the punitive measures that Scrooge supported, the prisons and workhouses, were cruel and horrible hoaxes, that merely punished the poor for being poor. He needed to do more, and others needed to do more, to relieve the suffering caused by their own greed.
The poor will always be with us, you say? SO WHAT!!! Does that mean you would stop the never ending struggle to make the world a better place? I think not!
Scrooge learned through the Ghost of Christmas Future the effects of his lack of caring would lead to, not just to his lonely and isolated death, but to the death of Tiny Tim, symbolic of all those left vulnerable to a system centered on greed and income inequality.
After his transformation, Scrooge gave to everyone he saw. He forgave and extended a loan, realizing that there were circumstances that warranted extension. He gave to children that were fighting. He even gave to a blind beggar, who, as it turns out can see (only in our play script version - I doubt if this is in the Dickens original version). Scrooge is so giddy he doesn't even care. If there is a choice between not giving because he feels he's being taken, or giving without conditions, he'll take that chance. He sees the man who earlier approached him about the charity to help the poor, people Scrooge does not EVEN know, and he gives generously to it.
Dickens was trying to make a commentary about the system as a whole. Scrooge is only representative of the worst elements of that system. Would Scrooge or Dickens support efforts to make the government more caring, generous or supportive? Of course they would! You can't change the system without ACTUALLY changing the system!
Dickens wrote in a time when income equality was an ugly, brutal problem. As it is a growing problem today. And I pray in some small measure that this play wakes up at least a few people. To be more generous, kind and caring. To rethink the focus on the idol money, and on to the value of caring about others, in our actions both on a personal level, and also to mankind as a whole.
It's what Dickens would have wanted.
It's what Jesus would have wanted.
Merry Christmas!
God bless us, EVERYONE!
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