A New Take on Dickens’ Timeless Classic
Theatre New Brunswick ring in the holiday season with a world-premiere adaptation of the Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol. Written by Michael Doherty and Caleb Marshall, this production is the perfect holiday fit for the company’s first all-New Brunswick professional season.
“I’ve always been drawn to stories about redemption,” said Doherty, whose compositions and arrangements helped shaped the holiday spirit of Fredericton’s Christmas@thePlayhouse over each of the 12 productions. “I think A Christmas Carol is one of the best. Dickens’ rich and elegantly crafted story asks us to question our own ideas about greed, poverty and forgiveness. Do we, like Scrooge, want to make a change? To see the world and our place within it in a different way? It’s been a challenge, a joy and a privilege to imagine what the music of this world sounds like.”
This production also marks the twelfth holiday collaboration between Doherty and Marshall, a relationship spanning several productions with TNB and The Fredericton Playhouse. This version of A Christmas Carol was commissioned by TNB and has been in development for much of 2014.
“Mike and I share a common vision of what is most powerful and important in holiday storytelling – our search for connection and redemption with our fellows,” said Marshall. “There is no other story that best illustrates this than Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.”
TNB’s production of A Christmas Carol welcomes the return of Saint John native, Shawn Wright, in the starring role as Scrooge. Wright last appeared on the TNB stage for the company’s production of Oleanna (2012), but may be most recognised by Fredericton audiences for his roles as Richard Hatfield in The Bricklin: An Automotive Fantasy and as David Adams Richards in Hockey Dreams.
A Christmas Carol features a full cast of established professional actors, supported by TNB’s renowned creative team and for this production, a six-person music ensemble who will provide the canvas on which the story is told.
A Christmas Carol | December 11 – 13 at The Fredericton Playhouse |7:30 pm with a matinee Sat. at 2 pm | Tickets
