The Journal
Charles Dickens’ great-greatgrandson on A Christmas Carol By Katherine Luck
Every year, right around the holidays, it’s everywhere: A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens’ immortal classic about the redemption of Victorian miser Ebenezer Scrooge hits holiday book displays, dominates TV listings and pops up on DVD racks. Even local theaters get into the act, with productions ranging from ACT’s traditional take on the work (now in its 35th year) to Unexpected Productions’ humorous An Improvised Christmas Carol to Seattle Public Theater’s unique reinterpretation, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol. Why is this 19th century novella so enduring? The perfect person to answer that question visited Whidbey Island in November: Charles Dickens’ great-great-grandson, Gerald Dickens. “Firstly, his characters are just so darned good,” he said. “But also because the things he was writing about are just as relevant now as they were in Victorian England.” Gerald, a professional actor, came to Washington from England to perform his one-man show at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts. The show, which includes scenes from Dickens’ novels, diary extracts, and observations from those who knew and worked with him, is based on the wildly popular public readings Dickens put on in the 1860s — many of which attracted crowds of 2,000 to 3,000. “He was a complete actor, and that’s how he put [his readings] together,” Gerald said. In fact, “The whole writing process started with acting. ... Right from the beginning. These characters adapt so well to the stage. ... His daughter, Mary, was able to sit in the same room with him as he wrote, and she recorded in her diary [that] what he did was stand in front of a mirror and act [the dialogue] out.” Gerald, who got his start as an actor at age 9 in a Christmas play, had plenty of material to plunder from his famous relative. Yet he actively avoided performing the work of Dickens for many years. But A Christmas Carol changed everything. In 1993 — the 150th anniversary of the publication of A Christmas Carol — Gerald agreed to perform a re-creation of Dickens’ public reading of the Christmas classic for a charity event. “I really wanted it to be my interpretation of the work,” he said. “It was me being very arrogant, I think. I thought,
Photo courtesy of Whidbey Island Center for the Arts
Professional actor Gerald Dickens, greatgreat-grandson of Charles Dickens. ‘We’re in the 20th century and the audience is very different. They won’t want a Victorian show.’ … Afterward, I did a bit of research and found out that was exactly how he’d done the [reading of the] work in the first place.” Though Dickens’ forte was creating unforgettable figures like Tiny Tim and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, Gerald emphasized that there’s more to A Christmas Carol than just intriguing characters and a heartwarming plot. “He wrote in a way that addressed poverty and child abuse and other social ills, but it never appeared preachy. It was accessible. People weren’t scared of it,” he said. “Whenever some new crisis comes about, I think ‘What would Charles think of it?’ On the one hand, I think he might put his head in his hands, because nothing has changed. But on the other, he might rub his hands together and think, ‘More material!’”
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