A CHRISTMAS CAROL : ACT ONE
Adapted for Reader’s Theater
by M Ryan Taylor
from the novel by Charles Dickens
Copyright © 2008 by M Ryan Taylor
Permission to copy for home or classroom use granted.
Please contact M Ryan Taylor for rights to perform publicly.

SCENE ONE : OUTSIDE SCROOGE AND MARLEY’S

EXCHANGE BOY

You say Marley’s dead?

EXCHANGE CLERK

There’s no doubt whatever about that. Old Marley’s as dead as a door-nail.

EXCHANGE BOY

An’ Scrooge knows that ‘ee’s dead?

EXCHANGE CLERK

Of course he does. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by it.

EXCHANGE BOY
(in wonder)

Bloomin’ ‘ell.

EXCHANGE CLERK

Watch your mouth, boy.

EXCHANGE BOY

Sorry . . . but why hasn’t ‘ee never painted out ol’ Marley’s name ‘en. "Scrooge and Marley" ih says, large as life.

EXCHANGE CLERK

Scrooge is a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone; he probably never had the inclination to pay a schilling to have the sign repainted.

EXCHANGE BOY

S’awefully confusing.

EXCHANGE CLERK

What’s confusing? I already told you that Scrooge is a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel has ever struck out a generous fire! What’s more to know? You be sure to keep clear of him.

EXCHANGE BOY

No need to get all blustery! I’m not the only one ‘ats confused.

EXCHANGE CLERK

What do you mean?

EXCHANGE BOY

I jus’ now ‘eard one uh the buyers call ‘im "Marley" to ‘is face as ‘ee took ‘is leave. ‘Ats all I meant.

EXCHANGE CLERK

He’ll answer to Marley if you call him by it, but Marley’s dead. Dead as . . .

EXCHANGE BOY

I ga’ it . . . a door-nail.

EXCHANGE CLERK

Now you listen to me. Nobody ever stops Scrooge in the street to say, "My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" No beggars implore him, no children ask him what it is o’clock, no man or woman ever inquires the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. And he likes it that way. So don’t give him the chance to give you his cane. When you have a message from anyone at the exchange for Mr. Scrooge you just deliver it to his clerk, Bob. He’s a good sort. You understand me?

EXCHANGE BOY

Yessir.

EXCHANGE CLERK

Enough time wasted. The next stop on your message route is Bromley’s. Come on.

SCENE TWO : INSIDE SCROOGE AND MARLEY’S

(Scrooge sits busy in his office. The door is open so he can keep an eye upon his clerk, Bob, who is in a dismal little cell beyond copying letters. Scrooge has a very small fire, but Bob’s fire looks as if there is only one coal. Bob, wrapped in his white comforter, tries to warm himself at his candle.)

FRED
(entering)

A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!

SCROOGE

Bah! Humbug!

FRED

Christmas a humbug, uncle! You don’t mean that, I am sure?

SCROOGE

I do. Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.

FRED

Come, then, What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.

SCROOGE

Bah! Humbug!

FRED

Don’t be cross, uncle!

SCROOGE

What else can I be when I live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ‘em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? 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. He should!

FRED

Uncle!

SCROOGE

Nephew! Keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.

FRED

Keep it! But you don’t keep it.

SCROOGE

Let me leave it alone, then. Much good may it 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 dare say. Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round–apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that–as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it! (Bob involuntarily applauds and becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety, pokes the fire, and extinguishes the last frail spark.)

SCROOGE
(to Bob)

Let me hear another sound from you and you’ll keep your Christmas by losing your situation! (to Fred)You’re quite a powerful speaker, sir. I wonder you don’t go into Parliament.

FRED

Don’t be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us tomorrow.

SCROOGE

I think not.

FRED

But why? Why?

SCROOGE

Why did you get married?

FRED

Because I fell in love.

SCROOGE

Because you fell in love! Good afternoon!

FRED

Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before that happened. Why give it as a reason for not coming now?

SCROOGE

Good afternoon.

FRED

I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be friends?

SCROOGE

Good afternoon.

FRED

I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I’ll keep my Christmas humour to the last. So A Merry Christmas, uncle!

SCROOGE

Good afternoon!

FRED

And A Happy New Year!

SCROOGE

Good afternoon!

FRED

Merry Christmas to you, Bob. Remember me to your charming wife.

BOB

A merry Christmas to you as well, sir!

SCROOGE
(to himself)

There’s another fellow; my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. I’ll retire to Bedlam. (Bob lets Fred out and two gentlemen enter with books and papers in their hands. They bow to Scrooge.)

FIRST GENTLEMAN
(referring to his list)

Scrooge and Marley’s, I believe. Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marley?

SCROOGE

Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years. He died seven years ago, this very night

SECOND GENTLEMAN

We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner.

SCROOGE

Hmph!

FIRST GENTLEMAN

At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.

SCROOGE

Are there no prisons?

SECOND GENTLEMAN

Plenty of prisons.

SCROOGE

And the Union workhouses? Are they still in operation?

FIRST GENTLEMAN

They are. Still, I wish I could say they were not.

SCROOGE

The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?

SECOND GENTLEMAN

Both very busy, sir.

SCROOGE

Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course. I’m very glad to hear it.

FIRST GENTLEMAN

Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude. a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?

SCROOGE

Nothing!

SECOND GENTLEMAN

You wish to be anonymous?

SCROOGE

I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned–they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.

FIRST GENTLEMAN

Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.

SCROOGE

If they would rather die they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides–excuse me–I don’t know that.

SECOND GENTLEMAN

But you might know it.

SCROOGE

It’s not my business. It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen! (The gentlemen withdraw and Scrooge resumes his labours.)

A YOUNG CAROLER

God rest you, merry gentlemen! Let nothing you dismay! (Scrooge seizes a ruler and makes for the door with such energy of action, that the singer flees in terror. Scrooge doesn’t return to his seat, but instead faces Bob.)

SCROOGE

You’ll want all day tomorrow, I suppose?

BOB

If quite convenient, sir.

SCROOGE

It’s not convenient and it’s not fair. If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you’d think yourself ill-used, I’ll be bound? And yet you don’t think me ill-used, when I pay a day’s wages for no work.

BOB

It’s only once a year, Mr. Scrooge.

SCROOGE

A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December! But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next morning.

BOB

All the earlier.

SCROOGE

See that you do! (Scrooge storms out.)

BOB
(to himself)

I shall go down the slide on Cornhill some twenty times in honor of old Christmas!

SCENE THREE : SCROOGE’S HOME

(Scrooge steps quickly in, closing the door behind him and leaning back against it.)

SCROOGE
(muttering to himself)

Marley’s face. Marley’s face! Spectacles and all! Dismal glowing, hair stirring as if it was alive. Eyes motionless and that livid colour . . . Horrible! (Scrooge shakes himself) Bah! (he begins to bolt, lock and double lock the door) Just a trick of the shadows . . . darkness is the price of being thrifty! (he takes off his cravat; puts on his dressing gown, slippers, his nightcap and moves to sit down before the fire place, but on looking upon it starts) Marley! (he turns and walks across the room) Humbug! (after several turns pacing about the room, he sits down and one of the chamber bells begins to swing and ring, Scrooge begins to rise) Impossible! That bell doesn’t go . . . (all the bells in the house begin to ring and Scrooge looks about sinking back into his chair, as if to find a place to hide in it, then all at once they stop again, but in the distance the sound of chains being dragged across the floor replaces them and Scrooge sits bolt upright and stares at the door) Humbug . . . Humbug! Humbug!!! (the door flies open with a booming sound, and Scrooge shrinks from it, the sound of chains grows louder) It’s humbug still! I won’t . . . I won’t believe it.

SCENE FOUR : MARLEY’S GHOST

(Marley’s ghost enters)

SCROOGE
(whispering)

I know him . . . (Scrooge screws up his courage and puts on his cold and caustic business tone) How now! What do you want with me?

MARLEY

Much!

SCROOGE

Who are you?

MARLEY

Ask me who I was.

SCROOGE

Who were you then? You’re particular, for a shade.

MARLEY

In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley.

SCROOGE

Can you–can you sit down?

MARLEY

I can.

SCROOGE

Do it, then.

MARLEY

You don’t believe in me.

SCROOGE

I don’t.

MARLEY

What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?

SCROOGE

I don’t know.

MARLEY

Why do you doubt your senses?

SCROOGE

Because, a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheat. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are! You see this toothpick?

MARLEY

I do.

SCROOGE

You are not looking at it.

MARLEY

But I see it, notwithstanding.

SCROOGE

Well! I have but to swallow this, and be for the rest of my days persecuted by a legion of goblins, all of my own creation. Humbug, I tell you! humbug! (Marley raises a frightful cry, and shakes his chains, Scrooge falls upon his knees, and clasps his hands before his face) Mercy! Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?

MARLEY

Man of the worldly mind! Do you believe in me or not?

SCROOGE

I do. I must. But why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to me?

MARLEY

It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world–oh, woe is me!–and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness! (again Marley raises a cry, and shakes his chains and wrings his hands)

SCROOGE
(trembling)

You are fettered. Tell me why?

MARLEY

I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you? Or would you know, the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!

SCROOGE
(imploringly)

Jacob. Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!

MARLEY

I have none to give. It comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men. Nor can I tell you what I would. A very little more is all permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked beyond our counting-house–mark me!–in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me!

SCROOGE
(thoughtfully)

You must have been very slow about it, Jacob.

MARLEY

Slow!

SCROOGE

Seven years dead and travelling all the time!

MARLEY

The whole time. No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse.

SCROOGE

You travel fast?

MARLEY

On the wings of the wind.

SCROOGE

You might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years.

MARLEY
(crying and shaking his chains)

Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed, not to know, that ages of incessant labour by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!

SCROOGE

But you were always a good man of business, Jacob

MARLEY
(crying and shaking his chains)

Business! Business!! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business! (Marley holds up his chains and then flings them upon the ground again) At this time of the rolling year I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me! Hear me! My time is nearly gone.

SCROOGE

I will. But don’t be hard upon me, Jacob! Pray!

MARLEY

How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you can see, I may not tell. I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day. (Scrooge shivers and wipes the perspiration from his brow) That is no light part of my penance. I am here tonight to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer.

SCROOGE

You were always a good friend to me.

MARLEY

You will be haunted by Three Spirits.

SCROOGE

Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob?

MARLEY

It is.

SCROOGE

I–I think I’d rather not.

MARLEY

Without their visits you cannot hope to shun the path I tread. Expect the first when the bell tolls One.

SCROOGE

Couldn’t I take ‘em all at once, and have it over, Jacob?

MARLEY

Look to see me no more; and look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between us! (Marley backs toward the window and with each step the window opens a little more so that it is completely open when he reaches it, he beckons for Scrooge to join him, but stops holds of his hand to stop him when he is within two paces)

SCROOGE

What are these confused noises on the air? (Marley begins to join the mourning chorus) Marley? (Marley floats out the window and Scrooge bursts forward to look out upon the chorus of spirits, chained and shackled as Marley, lamenting in regret a dirge of self-accusation and sorrow) Shacklebolt? Whimsley? Forgrimmst? How many I have known . . . That woman holding a child, lying in the snow. They try to help her . . . but they have lost their power. (Scrooge slams the window shut and turns away) Hum . . . (Scrooge goes straight to bed, without undressing, and falls asleep in an instant)

END OF ACT ONE