The Night Before Christmas Carol

The genesis of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, one of my all-time favorite stories--Christmas or otherwise--is cleverly reconstructed in Professor Elliot Engel's one-man stage play, featuring Jeffery West as Dickens. Set in Dickens' study late one winter's night in 1843, the play deftly interweaves narrative facts from Dickens' own life with the author's feverish attempts to get the basics of his new Christmas story down on paper. Whether fumbling around with name choices for his characters, chancing upon wonderful phrases which he decides to save for later works ("it was the best of times; it was the worst of times...wait, I like that"), or grappling with the central themes of charity and spiritual rebirth, The Night Before Christmas Carol is never less than inventively clever and often very amusing. Recommended. (R. Pitman)