‘It has added political resonance this year’: why Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol still strikes a chord

Audiences can choose from a glut of Ebenezers this festive season, with the infamous miser a more pointed character than ever in these hard times This Christmas, whatever the weather, it will be snowing “Bah! Humbug!”s, with cobwebby ghosts of Jacob Marley queuing up to shake their spooky chains at audiences. Because in the next few weeks, productions of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’s beloved festive storyabout the transformational power of empathy, will easily rival seasonal pantomimes in number. Last year the listings magazine Time Out complained there were at least four versions playing in the capital’s theatres, although in a previous year there were seven. This time we are surely at “peak Ebenezer”, with nine prominent stage versions to choose from in London alone. Continue reading...