Ebenezer
Scrooge: Jhon Pabon
Phantom
of the Christmas past: Alejandra Lema
Phantom
of the Christmas present: Diana Rojas
Charwoman: Luisa Moreno
Last
Phantom: Bárbara Camargo
Jacob
Marley: Henry Velandia
Fred:
Jocsan Jímenez
Bob
Cratchit: Raúl Salgado
The
Gentleman: Leandro Figueroa
Scene
i. Scrooge in His Shop:
·
Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by his nephew
FRED: A Merry
Christmas, Uncle! God save you!
SCROOGE: Bah!
Humbug!
FRED: Christmas
is a humbug, Uncle? I hope that‟s meant as a joke.
SCROOGE: Well,
it‟s not. Come, some, what is it you want? Don‟t waste all day, Nephew
FRED: I only
want to wish you a Merry Christmas, Uncle. Don‟t be cross.
SCROOGE: What else
can I be when I live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out
with Merry Christmas! What‟s Christmas to you but a time for paying bills
without money; a time for finding yourself a year older but not an hour richer.
If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas” on
his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly
through his heart.
FRED: Uncle!
SCROOGE: Nephew, keep Christmas in your own
way and let me keep it in mine.
FRED: But you
don‟t keep it.
SCROOGE: Then
leave it alone then, much good it may do you. Much good it has ever done you.
FRED: There are
many things from which I might have derived good by which I have not profited,
I daresay, Christmas among the rest. And though it has never put a scrap of
gold in my pocket, I believe it has done me good and will do me good, and I say
God bless it!
SCROOGE: Bah!
FRED: Don‟t be
angry, Uncle. Come! Dine with us tomorrow.
SCROOGE: I‟ll dine
alone, thank you.
…..
GENTLEMAN
VISITOR: Scrooge and Marley‟s, I believe. Have I the pleasure of addressing
Mr. Scrooge or Mr. Marley?
SCROOGE: Marley‟s
dead. Seven years tonight. What is it you want?
GENTLEMAN
VISITOR: I have no doubt that his liberality is well represented by his
surviving partner. Here, sir, my card.
SCROOGE: Liberality?
No doubt of it? All right, all right, I can read. What is it you want?
GENTLEMAN
VISITOR: At this festive season of the year…
SCROOGE: It‟s
winter and cold.
GENTLEMAN
VISITOR: Yes…yes, it is, and the more reason for my visit. At this time of
the year it is
more than usually desirable to make some slight provision for the
poor and destitute who suffer
greatly from the cold. Many thousands are in want of common
necessaries; hundreds of
thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.
SCROOGE: Are there
no prisons?
GENTLEMAN
VISITOR: Many, sir.
SCROOGE: And the
workhouse, is it still in operation?
GENTLEMAN VISITOR: It is, still, I wish I could say it was not.
SCROOGE: The poor law is still in full vigor then?
GENTLEMAN VISITOR: Yes, sir.
SCROOGE: I‟m glad to hear it. From what you said, I was afraid
someone had stopped its operation.
GENTLEMAN VISITOR: Under the impression that they scarcely
furnish Christian cheer of mind of body to the multitude, a few of us are
endeavoring to raise fund to buy the poor some meat and drink and means of
warmth. We chose this time because it is the time, of all others, when want is
keenly felt and abundance rejoices. May I put you down for something sir?
SCROOGE: Nothing.
GENTLEMAN VISITOR: You wish to be anonymous?
SCROOGE: I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me what I wish,
sir, that is my answer. I don‟t make merry myself at Christmas and I can‟t
afford to make idle people merry, I help support the establishments I have
mentioned…they cost enough…and those who are poorly off must go there
….
SCROOGE: Latch the door, Cratchit. Firmly, firmly. Draft as
cold as Christmas blowing in here. Charity!
SCROOGE: Is it?
CRATCHIT: Christmas evening, sir.
SCROOGE: Oh, you‟ll want all day tomorrow off, I suppose.
CRATCHIT: If it‟s quite convenient, sir.
SCROOGE: It‟s not convenient, and it‟s not fair. If I was to
deduct half a crown from your salary for it, you‟d think yourself ill used,
wouldn‟t you? Still you expect me to pay a day‟s wage for a day of no work.
CRATCHIT: It‟s only once a year, sir.
SCROOGE: Be here all the earlier the next morning.
CRATCHIT: I will, sir.
Scene 2. Scrooge goes home:
·
Ebenezer gets ready to spend Christmas Eve
alone
CHARWOMAN: Yes, sir?
SCROOGE: Hurry, hurry. The door…close it.
CHARWOMAN: Did you
knock, sir?
SCROOGE: Knock? What matter? Here, light me up the stairs.
CHARWOMAN: Yes, sir
CHARWOMAN: Something to warm you, sir? Porridge?
SCROOGE: Wha…? No. No, nothing.
CHARWOMAN: Merry Christmas, sir.
SCROOGE: Fright a man nearly out of his life…Merry
Christmas…bah!
CHARWOMAN: Your room, sir.
SCROOGE: Hmm? Oh yes, yes. And good night.
CHARWOMAN: Warm your bed for you, sir?
SCROOGE: What? Out! Out!
CHARWOMAN: Aye, sir.
SCROOGE: What‟s that?
CHARWOMAN: Me, sir? Not a thing, sir.
SCROOGE: Then, good night.
Scene 3. Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by Jacob Marley
·
Ebenezer is given a chance to purify his
greedy soul
SCROOGE: What do you want with me?
MARLEY: (In a ghostly, unreal voice.) Much.
SCROOGE: Who are you?
MARLEY: Ask who I was.
SCROOGE: Who were you?
MARLEY: In life, I was your partner, Jacob Marley.
SCROOGE: He‟s Dead.
MARLEY: Seven years this night, Ebenezer Scrooge
SCROOGE: Why do you come here?
MARLEY: I must. It is commanded me. I must wander the world and
see what I can no
longer share, what I would not share when I walked where you
do.
SCROOGE: And must go thus?
MARLEY: The chair? Look at it, Ebenezer, study it. Locks and
vaults and golden coins. I
forged it, each link, each day when I sat in thesechairs,
commanded these rooms. Greed,
Ebenezer Scrooge, wealth. Feel them, know them. Yours was as
heavy as this I wear seven years
ago and you have labored to build it since.
SCROOGE: If you‟re here to lecture, I have no time for it. It
is late, the night is cold. I want
comfort now.
MARLEY: I have none to give. I know not how you see me this
night. I did not ask it. I have
sat invisible beside you many and many a day. I am commanded
to bring you a chance,
Ebenezer. Heed it!
SCROOGE: Quickly then, quickly.
MARLEY: You will be haunted by three spirits.
SCROOGE: Is that the chance?
MARLEY: Mark it.
SCROOGE: I do not choose to.
MARLEY: Then you will walk where I do, burdened by your riches,
your greed.
SCROOGE: Spirits mean nothing to me.
MARLEY: Expect the first tomorrow, when the bell tolls one, the
second the
next night at the same hour, the third upon the next night
when the last stroke of twelve has
ended. Look to see me no more. I must wander. Look that, for
your own sake, you remember
what has passed between us.
SCROOGE: Jacob…Don‟t leave me! ...Jacob! Jacob!
Scene iii. The Spirit of Christmas Past
SCROOGE: Are you the spirit whose coming was foretold to me?
FIRST SPIRIT: I am.
SCROOGE: Who and what are you?
FIRST SPIRIT: I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.
SCROOGE: Long past?
FIRST SPIRIT: Your past.
SCROOGE: Why are you here?
FIRST SPIRIT: Your welfare. Rise. Walk with me.
SCROOGE: I am mortal still. I cannot pass through air.
FIRST SPIRIT: My hand.
SCROOGE: Jack Walton. Young Jack Walton. Spirits…? Yes, yes, I
remember him. Both of them. Little Ben Benjamin. He used to… They…they‟re off
for the holidays and going home from school. It‟s Christmas time…all of the
children off home now…No…no, not at all… there was one. Yes…reading…poor boy.
FIRST SPIRIT: What, I wonder?
SCROOGE: Reading? Oh, it was nothing. Fancy, all fancy and
make-believe and take-meaway.
All of it. Yes, nonsense.
FIRST SPIRIT: She dies a woman and had, as I remember,
children.
SCROOGE: One child.
FIRST SPIRIT: Your nephew
FIRST SPIRIT: Then I will leave you.
SCROOGE: Not yet! Don‟t leave me here! Tell me what I must do!
What of the other spirits?
FIRST SPIRIT: They will come.
SCROOGE: And you? What of you?
Scene iv. The Spirit of Christmas Present
SECOND SPIRIT: Hello, Scrooge.
SCROOGE: But you can‟t be…not Fezziwig.
SECOND SPIRIT: Do you see me as him?
SCROOGE: I do.
SECOND SPIRIT: And hear me as him?
SCROOGE: I do.
SECOND SPIRIT: I wish I were the gentleman, so as not to
disappoint you.
SCROOGE: But you‟re not…?
SECOND SPIRIT: No, Mr. Scrooge. You have never seen the like o
fme before. I am the Ghost of
Christmas Present.
SCROOGE: But…
SECOND SPIRIT: You see what you will see, Scrooge, no more.
Will you walk out with me this Christmas Eve?
SCROOGE: But I am not yet dressed.
SECOND SPIRIT: Take my
tails, dear boy, we‟re leaving.
SCROOGE: Wait!
SECOND SPIRIT: What is it now?
SCROOGE: Christmas Present, did you say?
SECOND SPIRIT: I did.
SCROOGE: Then we are traveling here? In this town? London? Just
down there?
SECOND SPIRIT: Yes, yes, of course.
SCROOGE: Then could we walk? Your flying is…well, too sudden
for an old man. Well?
SECOND SPIRIT: It‟s your Christmas, Scrooge; I am only the
guide.
is by the hearth.) How did our little Tiny Tim behave?
BOB CRATCHIT: As good as gold and better. He told me, coming home,
that he hoped the people
saw him in the church because he was a cripple and it might
be pleasant for them to remember
upon Christmas Day who made the lame to walk and the blind
to see.
SCROOGE: Hardly hospitable is what I‟d say. Spirit. I…I have
seen enough. Tiny
Tim…will he live?
SECOND SPIRIT: He is very ill. Even song cannot keep him whole
through a cold winter.
SCROOGE: But you haven‟t told me! If he be like to die, he had
better do it and decrease the
surplus population. Erase, Scrooge, those words from your
thoughts. You
are not the judge.
3 scene. Ebenezer learn the lesson
LAST SPIRIT: He was Christmas Past. There was a lifetime he
could choose from. I have only
this day, one day, and you Scrooge. I have nearly lived my
fill of both. Christmas Present must
be gone at Midnight. That is near now. Come.
SCROOGE: Is this the last spirit who is to come to me?
LAST SPIRIT: They are no spirits. They are real. Hunger,
Ignorance. Not spirits, Scrooge,
passing dreams. They are real. They walk your streets, look
to you for comfort. And you deny
them. Deny them not too long, Scrooge. They will grow and
multiply and they will not remain
children.
SCROOGE: Have they no refuge, no resource?
LAST SPIRIT: (Again imitating Scrooge) Are there no prisons?
Are there no workhouses?
(Tenderly to the children) Come. It‟s Christmas Eve. (He
leads them offstage.)
