Sunday, December 21, 2008. 10:10 AM
Exploring Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol
The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith
The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, host
Dean Sam Lloyd welcomed actor Martin Rayner, star of Ford’s Theatre’s dramatic adaptation of A Christmas Carol and playwright and Georgetown University Dickens scholar John Glavin for an exploration of Dickens’ Christmas classic in a special Advent session of The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith.
Glavin, a literary scholar at Georgetown University, describes A Christmas Carol as “a really economically told tale; a lot happens in a very few pages”; many other works by Dickens, by contrast, unfold gradually. A Christmas Carol gained popularity with surprising speed. Since almost the moment of its publication, the tale has been adapted for stage and later screen, animation, and other media.
Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol to earn badly needed money so that he could pay debts in the new year. In 1843, Dickens feared that perpetual indebtedness would land him in prison. Glavin says of A Christmas Carol that “the economic necessity that’s driving part of the story is also driving Dickens’s own life,” as well as that of Britain overall during the 1840s.
“Was Christmas at this time something that someone might want to market around?” Lloyd queries.
“Sometimes people say that Dickens invented Christmas,” Glavin responds, adding that he does not agree with that analysis. He says that the Christmas described by Dickens is influenced by the writings of Washington Irving and by customs from northern Germany, which shaped English celebrations when Christmas slowly crept back into England after it had been banned by the Puritans. The tale also has Shakespearean influences, such as a preoccupation with death scenes.
In his own life, Dickens tried to “rescue Christ from Christianity,” Glavin asserts. Dickens scorned organized religion but immersed himself in study of the Bible; he wrote his own theological insights for his children. A Christmas Carol shows many influences from the Old Testament and New Testament.
At the time of this Sunday Forum, Rayner was playing Ebenezer Scrooge in a production of A Christmas Carol at Ford’s Theater. Rayner describes sources of inspiration for his portrayal of Scrooge, including the theme of human redemption, and the lead character’s own revulsion at Christmas sentiment. Rayner quotes Scrooge’s lines from the beginning of the play:
“If I had my will, every idiot who goes around with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart, he should.”
The actor draws energy from knowing that he will “shoot out into the light” at the end of the play. “I’ll get to really have joy and celebrate with the audience once we’ve all been through this difficult part,” Rayner says.
Martin Rayner stars as Ebeneezer Scrooge in Ford’s Theatre’s production of A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas. A native of England, he has appeared on television in “Dr. Who,” “Star Trek Voyager” (Dr. Chaotica), “Frasier,” and “Law and Order: CI.” Broadway and off-Broadway credits include Tom Stoppard’s “The Invention of Love,” the Graham Greene adaptation “Travels with My Aunt,” and Shakespeare’s “Henry V” in Central Park, among many other productions. Mr. Rayner was recently seen in Athol Fugard’s “The Road to Mecca” at Studio Theatre.
John Glavin is a playwright and professor of English at Georgetown University, where he specializes in Victorian literature, and particularly in stage and screen adaptations of the works of Charles Dickens. Mr. Glavin’s most recent books include After Dickens: Reading, Adaptation and Performance (1999) and Dickens On Screen (2003).
- Learn about Ford’s Theatre’s fifth annual production of A Christmas Carol, starring Martin Rayner, and download a companion guide to the play »
- Visit Dickens scholar John Glavin’s web page at Georgetown University »
- Order John Glavin’s books Dickens on Screen and After Dickens: Reading, Adaptation, and Performance from Amazon.com »
- Visit the Charles Dickens web page »
- Visit the Dickens Project online »
- Read Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley’s recent review of The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits »
- Order The Man Who Invented Christmas from Amazon.com »
About Martin Rayner
Martin Rayner stars as Ebeneezer Scrooge in Ford’s Theatre’s production of A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas. A native of England, he has appeared on television in “Dr. Who,” “Star Trek Voyager” (Dr. Chaotica), “Frasier,” and “Law and Order: CI.” Broadway and off-Broadway credits include Tom Stoppard’s “The Invention of Love,” the Graham Greene adaptation “Travels with My Aunt,” and Shakespeare’s “Henry V” in Central Park, among many other productions. Mr. Rayner was recently seen in Athol Fugard’s “The Road to Mecca” at Studio Theatre.
About John Glavin
John Glavin is a playwright and professor of English at Georgetown University, where he specializes in Victorian literature, and particularly in stage and screen adaptations of the works of Charles Dickens. Mr. Glavin’s most recent books include After Dickens: Reading, Adaptation and Performance (1999) and Dickens On Screen (2003).