Off the Wall Streaming Its One-man “A Christmas Carol” (Thurs., 12/24/20)

Mark Coffin conjures the Ghosts of Christmas and the ghosts of 1800s London in off the WALL’s ‘A Christmas Carol.’ (photo: Heather Mull Photography)

The year is 1843. Charles Dickens is hard at work on a book he hopes will secure his reputation forever: the ponderous satirical novel Martin Chuzzlewit. In between writing serialized installments, he squeezes out a little novella just in time for holiday book sales. And A Christmas Carol becomes the story that wins hearts for centuries worldwide. There have been many adaptations and many Scrooges. Lionel Barrymore played the role on radio, in voice only; Marcel Marceau played it with no voice, in mime only. Now you can see a new version available on the web only, with Scrooge, all other characters, and even Dickens played by only one man, theater artist Mark Coffin. Co-created by Coffin and director Heidi Mueller Smith, the show was premiered by off the WALL productions in 2018, and this year off the WALL streams a video of the closing-night performance. Click for tickets. This adaptation of A Christmas Carol is a good one. It’s available online beginning  at 6 p.m. December 23 and continues through December 27. Proceeds go to The Actors Fund, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. (MV)

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