A Christmas Carol

In Blessed Unrest’s A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’ beloved holiday classic meets innovative, socially conscious devised theater. The basics — Ebenezer Scrooge’s lonely existence and his life-changing decision to enact positive change in the troubled world around him — stay the same. But this adaptation, written by Matt Opatrny, returns to the little-known origins of its source: a political pamphlet titled “An Appeal to the People of England on Behalf of the Poor Man’s Child” that Dickens considered writing but never published. Opatrny’s play honors Dickens’ original intent of examining an unjust socioeconomic system. Under Jessica Burr’s direction, A Christmas Carol becomes a raw, physical, and darkly comic story but remains a family-friendly holiday show. Six performers play 37 characters who speak fluent Dickens, wear quirky costumes, and dance to Lady Gaga.