INTERVIEW: ‘Christmas Carol’ brought to life at Merchant’s House

Photo: John Kevin Jones co-adapted and stars in A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House Museum. Photo courtesy of PR rep / Provided with permission.

A Christmas Carol is about as ubiquitous a holiday staple as candy canes and that ballet about a nutcracker. It’s a beloved story by the great Charles Dickens and has been adapted into many different forms over the years since its initial publication.

Few celebrations of the original text, however, bring the story of A Christmas Carol to life and also have Dickens himself play a major part in the retelling of the tale. Fewer get to stage the story in a marvelously atmospheric and historic house in New York City.

Enter actor John Kevin Jones, who has returned to portray Dickens and each of A Christmas Carol’s characters in a one-man show at the Merchant’s House Museum on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It’s the sixth year running for the accomplished interpreter, and audiences have responded in kind.

“I think they can expect an authentic voice of Charles Dickens,” Jones said in a recent phone interview. “That’s what I try to bring to my solo performance. It is me as Dickens.”

Jones co-adapted the story with Rhonda Dodd, who serves as director. Together they fashioned a one-hour evening in which Dickens is performing A Christmas Carol for an audience. This is actually not an act of fabrication, but one based on historical precedent.

“We use Dickens’ performing text,” Jones said. “He wanted to give performances of this, and he did it actually to help himself make money because the copyright laws were a little different. And authors were making money in a lot of ways, expanding their repertoire of how they got their work out there, and so he gave a lot of these readings. And he did edit A Christmas Carol to about an hour and 45 – two hours for a reading, and we’ve edited that section … to about an hour.”

Technically speaking, Jones and Dodd cut Dickens’ performing text to 45 minutes, but they found usable material in the original story — essentially rounding out the evening to a nice 60-minute experience. Of course, audiences can tack on a few more minutes and enjoy a pre-show cocktail reception with Jones as Dickens.

“We went back into the text of A Christmas Carol because we thought that there were things that Dickens didn’t include that really spoke to us about what this story is really about and how this story is really so effective right now with regards to economic justice and social justice,” Jones said. “We wanted it to have that perspective of this character [Ebenezer Scrooge] really seeing himself clearly and wanting to do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, not because he’s trying to make up for some past transgression, but rather that he really is seeing life anew. And that’s what we hope we do, too, when audiences come to see us, that they leave with a new sense of these words and a renewed sense of the story.”

The story is so well known it’s almost an exercise in futility to recap the characters and plot points. If audiences don’t know about Scrooge, his visitation from ghosts, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit and the ultimate redemption, then it’s time to pick up a book (or a movie, or go see this play).

This Christmas Carol strives to dig deep and capture the story’s main themes.

“I know it is just me on stage, but I have seen a lot of shows with all the bells and whistles and all the characters and all that, and I think somehow this message, this idea that we are better than how we sometimes are, [is lost],” Jones said. “And I admit my own Scrooge-iness on the subway and the MTA I think every other day, but we want to be able to bring that authentic message of Dickens to bear on this. And so that’s what they can expect. Also, I think it’s a beautiful experience, sitting inside the Merchant’s House Museum, which was extant at the time that Charles Dickens was here reading these stories, and feeling that sense of old New York and that sense of history and then the story that comes from that time; it’s lovely. It’s a beautiful way to spend a little bit of your holiday.”

The Merchant’s House is a 1832 landmark, and the show is performed in the Greek revival parlor. Summoners Ensemble Theatre, the producers, limit the audience members to 50 people, so intimacy is definitely achieved in these unique surroundings.

Being that up close and personal with the audience is a daunting task for any actor. Although he has been up to the challenge, there’s no denying that performing A Christmas Carol takes its toll.

“With any performance, if you’re not beaten up by the end of the show, I don’t know if you really put your whole self into it,” he said. “I think that we all try to leave it all out there on the stage 100 percent, and that’s certainly what I try to do. And it is demanding because I do play all the different characters. I voice them as Dickens did. … And it does become exhausting because it’s a journey, and I’m really working my way through that journey with the audience anew every night. So, yeah, I’m pretty exhausted by the end of the night, but not too exhausted to not go downstairs and say goodbye to everybody as they leave. I do say good night to everyone as they go.”

He added: “We talk about in the Fezziwig scene that he and Mrs. Fezziwig would say good night to everyone as they left. That was sort of an inspiration to not just disappear after the show and be that guy who told the story. I want to be part of the community. I want to be involved, too, and I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas as they leave.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

A Christmas Carol, starring John Kevin Jones, plays through Dec. 29 at the Merchant’s House in Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.