Everyone knows the familiar Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. Many versions of the novel have been made into popular Christmas movies from everything to Bill Murray’s hilarious Scrooged to Mickey’s Christmas Carol.
In Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, the perspective of the classic story is told not by Ebenezer Scrooge, but of his dead business partner, Jacob Marley.
“The play tells something about Marley that nobody knows,” Rod Rich, the director, said.
In the second annual production of the play, the Actor’s Comedy Lab will return to Thompson Theatre for its production, written by Tom Mula.
Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol starts out with the same opening line of the novel, “Marley was dead to begin with.” The rest of the performance follows the basic story of Scrooge and his ghostly visits that try to break his cold heart.
However, the audience is finally shown the reason behind Scrooge’s redemption. Marley has been sent to hell for his horrible life filled with corruption and greed. He learns that all spirits are walking alongside of mortals in the world, even meeting his own spirit, a raisin-sized, spastic creature known as Bogle. The bogle shows Marley how horrible the afterlife is, emphasizing the chains that he must wear for eternity.
Marley learns there is a clause in the contract that can allow him to leave the pain and suffering that most hell-bound souls have to endure. Upon signing a contract, he learns that he must permanently change the heart of the coldest man Marley has ever known — Ebenezer Scrooge.
Marley, with the help of the Bogle, set out first to scare Scrooge in the traditional Christmas Carol scene where Marley confronts Scrooge in his home, violently shaking his chains and warning him of hell.
When this plan doesn’t work, Marley learns that spirits can change shape and even alter time. He and the Bogle come up with the ideas to show Scrooge the goodness of the world by becoming the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.
As Scrooge reflects on his past, Marley does the same. He revisits his own childhood from his alcoholic father, to his mother’s funeral, to the moment when he meets Scrooge.
In the present, Marley begins to become even more sympathetic towards the good of humanity than Scrooge does. In trying to change Scrooge, he changes himself, ultimately sacrificing everything he has been working for in order to change Scrooge.
One of the unique aspects of Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol is the unusually small cast. Only four actors must constantly change characters, often while onstage, using voice inflections, music and lighting.
“The most difficult part was trying to remember who I was supposed to be next,” Jerry Zieman, who plays a slew of characters including the record keeper of hell, said.
Rich said the play is about heart.
According to Rich, another aspect of Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol is its ever-changing emotions. He said the play is primarily a drama, but is littered with the comedic antics of the bogle and is even scary at times.
“It’s touching, without being too gushy,” Tony Hefner, who plays Marley, said.
Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol is a fun story that audience will love, according to the cast.
“Everybody loves A Christmas Carol but everyone is sick of A Christmas Carol,” Izzy Burger, who plays the comical role of Marley’s Bogle, said.