A Tale of Two Christmas Carols

Closing in in on nearly two centuries after its original publication of what has become known as a Christmas Classic continues on stage and on screen. “A Christmas Carol” has never lost its popularity since British author Charles Dickens, as a financially struggling author penned the work 174 years ago in just a 6 week period. As he and his wife were expecting their fifth child, the story unfolded.

North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) in Beverly, Massachusetts, for more than two decades has been host to what is now a a Christmas time tradition in the area in which one man, David Coffee, has taken on the same role of Ebenezer Scrooge. What makes him continue to return to the same stage each year and does he get the same feeling upon returning here each year? A resounding, “Yes,”he does get the same feeling, followed by “it’s a family.” He continued, “one of the things I love about doing this show (playing the role of Ebenezer Scrooge) is that you get to have a catharsis eight or nine times a week. When you leave the show, (at the end of each performance) walking out, you feel so good.”

Coffee says he believes there is also the possibility that his personality and that of Ebenezer Scrooge share some of the same traits . As an adopted only child, Coffee considers that maybe it is of himself having had “a repressed sense of loneliness” in his youth. “I always felt for Scrooge.” He also feels for his audiences in the New England area as well, proclaiming ” I’ve just been bowled over by the generosity of the people and the friendships” he has made especially having grown up hearing of “New Englander’s Reserve”.

He also mentions former artistic director/executive producer John Kimbell as the person who adapted the work into its North Shore Music Theatre production originally. It was Kimbell who taught Coffee to play the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. Discussing the book, written by Charles Dickens, Coffee remembers growing up with knowledge of the book, its story and its messages but can not recall how or why he gained the interest in it.”Maybe my parents gave the book,” he says. During a recent interview, it was evident how much at ease he was in the theatre. As he walked through the lobby doors and up and down corridors backstage and within the area where the audience is usually seated, he was teased by production staff who chided him for arriving a week in advance for rehearsals.

As Kimbell first walked Coffee through the paces of playing Ebenezer Scrooge in the early years of the production, Coffee explains how NSMT looked upon the role of the lead character, “We surmised that Fred (Scrooge’s nephew) was born around Christmas time, Fan, (Scrooge’s sister) died when she had him (Fred), Scrooge’s mother died at Christmas and Marley died at Christmas time.” According to Coffee, Kimball also believed that “Scrooge was having a nervous breakdown as he was so vulnerable.”

Coffee’s interest in acting began “in the early days of grammar school.” Looking back upon those years, he was quick to extend credit to a teacher explaining ” What keyed it in (his interest in acting) was that I had a teacher and for our music class I lip-synced all the songs from the “Wizard Of Oz.” She had me do it for all the classes.” Smiling, as he remembers those days, he said, “My first gig and I was held over!” Later in life,that interest held when he saw one of his first shows in a theatre. It was “Desert Song”and he remembers “enjoying everything about the theatre”, including “the artwork along the concourse,” which were “panoramic desert scenes.” That summer, he noticed an ad in the newspaper that announced two weeks of acting classes would be held. His parents were supportive and his father drove him 30 miles from his home in Arlington, Texas to a theatre in Fort Worth where he learned his craft. One of the first roles he played was as “Portly Otter from “Wind In the Willows.” Coffee enjoyed taking to the stage and says “I never stopped.” Once again he points out that his parents gave him the opportunity and now, when he is asked to present awards to up and coming actors and actresses when he hosts these events in his home State of Texas. he is certain to announce, following the ceremonies, ” Now, all of you people that have been recognized – everybody, – stand up, turn around and please applaud your parents.”

At North Shore Music Theatre, a plaque is dedicated to Coffee and hangs above a backstage conference room.

Coffee’s own list of theatrical awards and roles he has played are both long. Along with Ebenezer, they include portrayal of Tevye in Fiddler On The Roof, King Lear and many more. As to his acting career of nearly 50 years, he says, “it’s been an amazing journey.” As to playing the same role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the long standing, “A Christmas Carol” at North Shore Music Theatre which has become a local holiday tradition,he says, “It’s a thrill being able to do this show. It’s been a gift for me.”

Meanwhile, a continent away from David Coffee’s Arlington, Texas home, a boy by the name of Gerald Charles Dickens was honing his craft as an actor on a grammar school stage in Kent, England. Later in life, on the advice of a friend, he began performing as his great-great-grandfather, British author/journalist/actor, Charles Dickens once had in the 1800s. Gerald Dickens one-man shows include many scenes from his ancestor’s books, including some of Charles Dickens lesser known literary works. He appears to be following in Charles’ footsteps taking shows on the road each year as he travels throughout America.

Recreating the roles and re-writing the scripts to adapt them to his acting style is something he has been doing for over two decades now. As to “A Christmas Carol,” Dickens has had to memorize the lines of each character he voices. He is the miserly Scrooge one minute and through the use of his voice and his actions, becomes Scrooge’s nephew Fred, Bob Cratchit, Jacob Marley, a gentleman asking for donations for charity, the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future,a younger version of Ebenezer Scrooge, Fezziwig, Mrs. Cratchit, Old Joe and Tiny Tim, along with many other voice characterizations. Gerald Dickens uses only a few props on stage. He loves to interact with his audience. In fact, in his blog, “On The Road With Gerald Dickens” he often mentions his audience.

He has a keen eye and observes all that surrounds him whether acting in the venue of a library atmosphere, school, historic hall, parish or theatrical stage. In a previous tour, (2014, Salem, Massachusetts) at a three day conference entitled “Pickwickian Endeavors,” he not only performed but took part in as many events as possible. He attended luncheons, scholarly lectures, performances by drama students and musicians when time allowed. He was very supportive of the collegiate actors and actresses. Dickens says he knew as he was growing up that the famous author was part of the family tree, “his image was always around at home,” but he credits his own father for supporting his acting career and for having been such a “keen scholar of Dickens.”

He remembers “our house was filled with papers and biographies of Charles Dickens.” Also it was his father’s suggestion that he introduce what has now become Gerald’s favorite piece on stages or venues throughout England and America. “Dr. Marigold.” He says,”it is a beautiful piece that Charles Dickens wrote (in 1865) for a magazine. It is simply a single character talking to his audience. The character, at first, is a fast paced ‘cheap jack’ (peddler) but as he talks, he is telling you about life’s hard knocks and the tragedies he has experienced.

He is very straight and likable, you just want to listen to him.” Gerald was reluctant to perform the story at first and sadly, his father passed away never getting to see his son present it. Asked about the Dickens famous ancestral “ghost of the past” and what Gerald believes the author might say if he were sitting in the audience, he laughs and exclaims, “I think I would be out of a job! He (Charles Dickens) would never sit in an audience while someone else performed his work- he’d be furious!”

Currently, Gerald Dickens is back in America and enthusiastic about the places he visits and the venues that constantly change for his 7 week tour. His one man show adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” in Portland, Maine recently brought the crowd to its feet, giving the performer, Gerald Dickens, and his interpretation of the literary classic a rousing standing ovation at the Unitarian Universalist Parish.

The show began with an elderly man, cane in hand and sporting a top hat and tails walking down the center aisle of the First Parish Church, Gerald Dickens had transformed himself into the lead character from “A Christmas Carol.” He was “Ebenezer Scrooge.” It was not his only role in the play though. He conducts a one-man show, occasionally veering from the script, as we know it, awarding himself a few liberties to ad-lib or joke with members of the audience. It is to the audience’s delight when he involves them in the show judging from their reaction and applause following the performance in Portland, Maine.

Dickens, as his ancestor Charles once had, puts his heart and soul as well as energy into each of his shows. Often, if time allows, he will also go out and observe his audiences before the show or or speak with them before or after the show whether signing autographs or taking part in a Question and Answer session.

At the First Parish Church, the actor told a group of people who remained after the show to ask questions that, despite his surname, he did not always like the works of his ancestor and related a story about a former schoolteacher. According to Gerald Dickens recollection,one day she announced, ” We are going to read Oliver Twist and you’re going to like it.” She followed that statement, pointing to Gerald and informed the class, “his great-great grandfather wrote it.”Gerald remembers ” I could feel the eyes of all my classmates searing through the back of my head.” It was also during his teenage years when he “made the connection” that he wanted to perform on stage.” The Dickens family had been invited one New Year’s Eve to see a production of “Nicholas Nickleby.” Although he did to want to go, it was that night at the theatre that the seed of his acting career was planted and Gerald Dickens says it was shortly after the show began that “I was hooked.”
Reviewing his tours that have lasted over two decades, Gerald Dickens replied to the following

Questions and Answers from a reporter. 1. When you return to America to follow in your ancestor’s footsteps, what strikes you the most about the comparisons of his travels in the 1800s and yours now? Do you get the same feelings about performing and/or visiting some of the same locations and same shows each time you return to the U.S?

(Gerald) “Of course when Dickens came to America in 1842 many parts of it were still developing and growing (he describes Cincinnati as being a town that only a few years previously had been nothing more than a collection of houses straggling along the river), so everything was bright and new (almost like a stage set). Along with that America was still discovering its own identity, so he was able to see a country in its youth. Nowadays America is established within the world and confident of its position there. The wild landscapes that Dickens observed have been filled with malls and freeways, but the essence of the American is just as he found it – kind, caring, hospitable and welcoming!”

2. Considering this is the 174th anniversary of the writing of A Christmas Carol and a movie “The Man Who Invented Christmas” has now been released, would you say you have any qualities in personality traits that would compare to Ebenezer Scrooge’s personality? Or if family genealogy books relate Charles Dickens personality, how would you say you might compare to the author?

(Gerald) “I think that one of the truly masterful things in A Christmas Carol is that everyone can recognise traits from ALL of the characters within themselves – we all have Scrooge within us and we all have Cratchit there too and that is what makes the story gel.”

“Dickens himself could be a difficult and tormented man, but also one capable of great generosity and high spirits. Today he would undoubtedly be diagnosed as Bipolar. I don’t share those traits to such extremes (with either Dickens or Scrooge), but certainly there are dark days along with the many joyous ones.”

“The Man Who Invented Christmas” does a good job in capturing the torments of Dickens, and it is a lovely twist that old Ebenezer is the one who gently guides him through it.”

3 Describe a Gerald Dickens family Christmas you might celebrate when home in Abingdon, England.

(Gerald) “I will share my Christmas with my wife Liz, and it will be a quiet, reflective time. I will have been away for 7 weeks, and only get home on the 24th, so it will be a time for re-bonding and getting to know each other all over again. I will probably watch ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ – NOT A Christmas Carol!”

4. What is your favorite role/character to portray in A Christmas Carol and why?

(Gerald) “I love them all, and they are like friends and colleagues on tour with me, but the best character has to be Scrooge, for he is the only one who undergoes a process of change during the story. It is essential that the Scrooge at the end of the story is recognisable as the man we first met at the start (after all only a few hours have passed), and capturing that effectively is the most challenging part of the show.”

(Gerald)”Of the more minor characters I enjoy being Christmas Present, and Mrs Cratchit and Old Joe revoltingly selling on Scrooge’s clothes – each and every one was brilliantly created by Charles and it is my pleasure to portray them.”

5. In an earlier interview (2014 – PIckwickian Endeavors Conference in Salem, Ma), you indicated that your father was the man who really studied your ancestry and the works of Charles Dickens, did he (your father) and you each have a favorite Dickens book? What were they for each of you? Do other family members (and how many brothers and sisters are there?) share your acting abilities and interest in the author? Were both parents supportive of your career in a acting.

(Gerald) “My father was my greatest influence and greatest supporter when I began to perform the Dickens shows, and had such a depth of knowledge that I could also go to him for help. He favoured the later books and as far as I remember Our Mutual Friend was his favourite, whereas mine is Great Expectations (they were the two final completed novels).”

(Gerald) “I am the youngest of four children, and although I am the only actor, we all went into professions which rely on communication and people. My eldest sister sadly died a few years ago, but she was a journalist, my brother is in PR and marketing whilst my other sister is in the hotel and hospitality trade. Ian, particularly, is becoming more involved in the world of Charles Dickens and he and I have worked together on a number of projects, including the two editions of my Souvenir Programmes which have complemented the 2016 and 2017 tours.”

(Gerald)”My mother was just as supportive as my father regarding my career and loved to watch me perform whenever she could.”

Both men acting in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge have similarities in their theatrical experiences, despite each having lived on different continents.Both have portrayed Scrooge for more than two decades. Coffee, from Arlington, Texas and Dickens, from Abingdon, England. Both shows are energetic, Coffee needing to make use of the aisles and a revolving stage that spins to face audience members in different locations throughout the show. In this full production of A Christmas Carol, he interacts with many performers. Dickens one man show has him taking on the personalities of the characters in the book. Although A Christmas Carol is presented throughout Dickens 7 week tour, other works such as “Dr. Marigold” , “Mr. Dickens Is Coming,” “Nancy and Sikes” from “Oliver Twist” and ” Nicholas Nickleby” have also been performed.

Audiences have enjoyed “A Christmas Carol” performed by both men in the past and in the present. Hopefully, the two actors will continue their present endeavors well into the future.

********Readers wanting more information on the actors and schedule of performances can use the following website addresses:
https://www.davidcoffee.org
NSMT.org
http://geralddickens.wordpress.com
byerschoice.com

(photo credit Ian Dickens and Debbi Collar)