A Christmas Carol

This hearty, robust adaptation, drawing vigor from the words of Dickens, “is intended for those who desire a play of reasonable length but not of unreasonable production de­mands,” writes Payne in his preface to this script.
 
“I have taken no great liberties with the original story… Although the characters in the original tale are numerous (and some did not make the transition), the actual number of performers needed to act this play does not exceed 18 or 20; the sequence of scenes, some 14 in all, are not overly elaborate. I rec­ommend simplicity… however, there is no absolutely ‘right’ way of producing a play from this script; while production sugges­tions are incorporated into the text’s direc­tions, they in no way preclude other ap­proaches. Dickens was an adventurous writer; we should be no less so in bringing his creations to the stage.”