Scrooge Alert! The popular one-man show, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens’ great-great grandson Gerald Charles Dickens is returning for one show on Sunday, Nov. 30 at Wilton High School’s Clune Center for the Arts.
Kicking off the holiday season with a perfect and festive family activity, the Historical Christmas Barn and the Wilton Historical Society are sponsoring the performances.
This heartwarming show-of-the-season is performed by the great-great grandson of the literary master and author of the classic. Gerald, an actor and producer hailing from Oxford, England, will be performing his captivating rendition of this timeless holiday classic at 2 p.m., to benefit the Wilton Historical Society. Admission is $15; tickets are available at www.historicalchristmasbarn.com.
Gerald Charles Dickens bears more than a passing resemblance to his famous ancestor, who originally toured the U.S. in 1867 reading his literary works before spellbound audiences. The historians report that A Christmas Carol was his favorite piece to perform. According to Gerald, his great-great grandfather adored theater and initially wanted to be an actor but pursued writing as a career for practical purposes. For many years Gerald says that he himself “avoided anything to do with Dickens like the plague.” But in 1993 when a friend asked him to do a reading of A Christmas Carol on its 150th anniversary of publication to help raise money for a historical restoration project, he couldn’t turn the opportunity down. To his surprise, he enjoyed doing it and has been delighting audiences around the world with his rendition ever since.
During his energetic one-man show, Dickens brings A Christmas Carol to life. He leaps, he sobs, he laughs as he entertains depicting 26 characters of the classic tale, with just a table, wing chair, and hat rack accompanying him on stage. “It’s a wonderful show–a great family tradition–the best way I know of to kick off the holiday season,” says Bob Byers, president of Byers’ Choice Ltd., the sponsor for Dickens’ U.S. tour.
Dickens performances on his 2014 U.S. tour take him to several states across the country. He will transform theaters into scenes straight out of the classic holiday tale, much as Scrooge was transformed from a dispirited miser to a joyous soul after his Christmas Eve encounter with ghosts from the past, present and future.
The Historical Christmas Barn is located in the historic Lambert House at 150 Danbury Rd. (corner of Rte. 7 and Rte. 33), and is open Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. – 5 p.m..
The Wilton Historical Society is located at 224 Danbury Rd. (Rte. 7).