A CHRISTMAS CAROL : ACT TWO
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 : THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

(The clock begins to strike Twelve and Scrooge stirs and sits up on his bed)

SCROOGE

I must have dreamed it. I must . . . Marley said something about a visit . . . a visit when the clock strikes One. Was it a dream or not? (as if in answer, the clock begins the chiming prelude again before the clacker tolls One) Impossible! The clock just rang Twelve! Still there it is, the hour itself and nothing else! (the hour bell sounds and light flashes about and illuminates the room, a radiant child-like spirit holding a cap has appeared at Scrooge’s elbow) Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?

CHRISTMAS PAST

I am!

SCROOGE

Who, and what are you?

CHRISTMAS PAST

I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.

SCROOGE

Long Past?

CHRISTMAS PAST

No. Your past.

SCROOGE

I don’t know why, but I have a strange desire to see you don your cap. Please be covered.

CHRISTMAS PAST

What! Would you so soon put out, with worldly hands, the light I give? Is it not enough that you are one of those whose passions made this cap, and force me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon my brow!"

SCROOGE

I’ve no desire to offend you spirit, but I’ve no knowledge of having wilfully bonneted you at any period of my life. What business brings you here?

CHRISTMAS PAST

Your welfare!

SCROOGE

I’m much obliged, but would not a night of unbroken rest be more conducive to that end.

CHRISTMAS PAST

Your reclamation, then. Take heed! (gently placing a hand upon Scrooge’s arm) Rise! and walk with me! (Scrooge rises and is led to the window)

SCROOGE

I am a mortal and liable to fall.

CHRISTMAS PAST

Bear but a touch of my hand there, (the Spirit lays a hand upon his heart) and you shall be upheld in more than this!

SCENE TWO : THE COUNTRY

SCROOGE

Good Heaven! I was bred in this place. I was a boy here!

CHRISTMAS PAST

A thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares long, long, forgotten! Your lip is trembling. And what is that upon your cheek?

SCROOGE

Uh . . . oh! A rash, nothing more. I beg you spirit, lead me where you will.

CHRISTMAS PAST

You recollect the way?

SCROOGE
(fervantly)

Remember it! I could walk it blindfold.

CHRISTMAS PAST

Strange to have forgotten it for so many years! Let us go on. (they walk along the road passing boys in country gigs and carts, driven by farmers - the boys are in great spirits, shouting to each other salutations of the season)

SCROOGE

My school mates. Jeffrey, Price, Gordon . . .

CHRISTMAS PAST

These are but shadows of the things that have been. They have no consciousness of us. The school is not quite deserted. A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still.

SCROOGE

I know it well. (they enter the school, a lonely sits boy sits reading near a feeble fire; Scrooge sits down and weeps and all is still for a moment . . . the spirit touches his arm and Scrooge looks up and is surprised to see a man dressed in foriegn garments - other figures begin a sort of parade as well) Why, it’s Ali Baba! It’s dear old honest Ali Baba! Yes, yes, I know! One Christmas time, when that child was left here all alone, he did come, for the first time, just like that. Poor boy! And Valentine and his wild brother, Orson; there they go! And what’s his name, who was put down in his drawers, asleep, at the Gate of Damascus; don’t you see him! And the Sultan’s Groom turned upside down by the Genii; there he is upon his head! Serve him right. I’m glad of it. What business had he to be married to the Princess! (Scroog continues in an almost hysterical state between laughter and tears) There’s the Parrot! Green body and yellow tail, with a thing like a lettuce growing out of the top of his head; there he is! Poor Robin Crusoe, he called him, when he came home again after sailing round the island. ‘Poor Robin Crusoe, where have you been, Robin Crusoe?’ The man thought he was dreaming, but he wasn’t. It was the Parrot, you know. There goes Friday, running for his life to the little creek! Halloa! Hoop! Halloo! Poor boy! I wish . . . but it’s too late now.

CHRISTMAS PAST

What is the matter?

SCROOGE

Nothing. Nothing . . . There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something: that’s all.

CHRISTMAS PAST
(smiling thoughtfully)

Let us see another Christmas! (the spirit waves his hand and in a flash of light the young boy is gone and a young man is in his place who puts the book down and begins to pace the room, mournfully shaking his head - the door opens and a little girl darts in, putts her arms about his neck, and kisses him)

LITTLE FAN

Dear, dear brother. I have come to bring you home, dear brother! To bring you home, home, home!

YOUNG MAN SCROOGE

Home, little Fan?

LITTLE FAN
(gleefully)

Yes! Home, for good and all. Home, for ever and ever. Father is so much kinder than he used to be, that home’s like Heaven! He spoke so gently to me one dear night when I was going to bed, that I was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come home; and he said Yes, you should; and sent me in a coach to bring you. And you’re to be a man! and are never to come back here; but first, we’re to be together all the Christmas long, and have the merriest time in all the world.

YOUNG MAN SCROOGE

You are quite a woman, little Fan! (Fan claps her hands and laughs, tries to touch his head; but being too little, laughs again, and stands on tiptoe to embrace him - she begins to drag him toward the door)

CHRISTMAS PAST

Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered. But she had a large heart!

SCROOGE

So she had. You’re right. I will not gainsay it, Spirit. God forbid!

CHRISTMAS PAST

She died a woman and had, as I think, children.

SCROOGE

One child.

CHRISTMAS PAST

True. Your nephew!

SCROOGE

Yes. (the spirit places a hand on Scrooge’s heart)

SCENE THREE : AT FEZZIWIG’S

CHRISTMAS PAST

Do you know this place?

SCROOGE
(excitedly)

Know it! I was apprenticed here! Why, it’s old Fezziwig! Bless his heart; it’s Fezziwig alive again! (Fezziwig lays down his pen and looks at the clock)

FEZZIWIG

Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Wilkins!

SCROOGE

Richard Wilkins, to be sure! Bless me, yes. There he is. He was very much attached to me. Poor man! Dear, dear!

FEZZIWIG

Yo ho, my boys! No more work tonight. Christmas Eve, Wilkins. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let’s have the shutters up before a man can say Jack Robinson! (they charge out and come back panting like race-horses) Hilli-ho! Clear away, my lads, and let’s have lots of room here! Chirrup, Ebenezer! (they prepare the room, a fiddler with a music-book comes in, Mrs. Fezziwig in smiles followed by three daughters and six young followers - then all the young men and women employed in the business, along with various friends - the fiddler tunes up and they all dance)

FEZZIWIG (stopping the dance and handing the fiddler a cup)

Well done! (the fiddler drains his cup and takes to fiddling once again - the company dances even more furiously)

SCROOGE

Ah! Fizziwig, amazing man. Look at him go!

CHRISTMAS PAST

Dances and forfeits. Cake and cold roast. Mince-pies and ale. More dances. A small matter to make these silly folks so full of gratitude.

SCROOGE

Small!

CHRISTMAS PAST

Why! Is it not? He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money: three or four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise?

SCROOGE
(heatedly)

It isn’t that. It isn’t that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count ‘em up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune. (Scrooge glances at the spirit and then his gaze to the ground)

CHRISTMAS PAST

What is the matter?

SCROOGE

Nothing particular.

CHRISTMAS PAST

Something, I think?

SCROOGE

No. No. I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now. That’s all.

CHRISTMAS PAST

My time grows short. (laying a hand on Scrooge’s heart) Quick!

SCENE FOUR : A PARK

(an older Scrooge in his prime sits by the side of a fair young woman in a mourning-dress whose eyes are full of tears)

SCROOGE

No spirit, not this!

CHRISTMAS PAST

Watch.

BELLE

It matters little to you, very little. Another idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.

SCROOGE IN HIS PRIME

What Idol has displaced you?

BELLE

A golden one.

SCROOGE IN HIS PRIME

This is the even-handed dealing of the world! There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!

BELLE
(gently)

You fear the world too much. All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?

SCROOGE IN HIS PRIME

What then? Even if I have grown so much wiser, what then? I am not changed towards you. Am I?

BELLE

Our contract is an old one. It was made when we were both poor and content to be so, until, in good season, we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry. You are changed. When it was made, you were another man.

SCROOGE IN HIS PRIME

I was a boy.

BELLE

Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are. I am. That which promised happiness when we were one in heart, is fraught with misery now that we are two. How often and how keenly I have thought of this, I will not say. It is enough that I have thought of it, and can release you.

SCROOGE IN HIS PRIME

Have I ever sought release?

BELLE

In words. No. Never

SCROOGE IN HIS PRIME

In what, then?

BELLE

In a changed nature; in an altered spirit; in another atmosphere of life; another Hope as its great end. In everything that made my love of any worth or value in your sight. If this had never been between us tell me, would you seek me out and try to win me now? Ah, no!

SCROOGE IN HIS PRIME

You think not.

BELLE

I would gladly think otherwise if I could. Heaven knows! When I have learned a Truth like this, I know how strong and irresistible it must be. But if you were free today, tomorrow, yesterday, can even I believe that you would choose a dowerless girl–you who, in your very confidence with her, weigh everything by Gain: or, choosing her, if for a moment you were false enough to your one guiding principle to do so, do I not know that your repentance and regret would surely follow? I do; and I release you. With a full heart, for the love of him you once were. (he is about to speak, but Belle, having her head turned away does not see it and resumes) You may–the memory of what is past half makes me hope you will–have pain in this. A very, very brief time, and you will dismiss the recollection of it, gladly, as an unprofitable dream, from which it happened well that you awoke. May you be happy in the life you have chosen! (Belle rises and leaves)

SCROOGE

Spirit! Show me no more! Conduct me home. Why do you delight to torture me?

CHRISTMAS PAST

One shadow more!

SCROOGE

No more! No more. I don’t wish to see it. Show me no more! (the spirit places a hand on Scrooge’s heart)

SCENE FIVE : BELLE’S HOME

CHRISTMAS PAST

Another scene and place; a room, not very large or handsome, but full of comfort. See the beautiful young girl?

SCROOGE

Belle!

CHRISTMAS PAST

No, look! Sitting opposite the young lady.

SCROOGE

Belle? (a small crowd of children runs into the room playing and showing the motherly Belle their treasures - mother and daughter laugh heartily, and mingle in the sports - the door is heard, a father enters with presents and is mobbed by the brood as he distributes them - free of his load he comes to Belle)

BELLE’S HUSBAND

Belle, I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon.

MOTHER BELLE

Who was it?

BELLE’S HUSBAND

Guess!

MOTHER BELLE

How can I? Tut, don’t I know? (she laughs) Mr. Scrooge.

BELLE’S HUSBAND

Mr. Scrooge it was. I passed his office window; and as it was not shut up, and he had a candle inside, I could scarcely help seeing him. His partner lies upon the point of death, I hear; and there he sat alone. Quite alone in the world, I do believe.

SCROOGE
(in agony)

Spirit! Remove me from this place.

CHRISTMAS PAST

I told you these were shadows of the things that have been. That they are what they are, do not blame me!

SCROOGE

Remove me! I cannot bear it! (he turns to the spirit) I see in you all the faces of the past! Leave me! Take me back. Haunt me no longer! (Scrooge grabs the cap the spirit has been holding this whole while and brutally presses it down on the spirit’s head - all goes dark)

END OF ACT TWO