A Chritsmas Carol By Charles Dickens

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.)