Charles Dickens may have been the world’s first rock star.
Whenever the author came to New York to read “A Christmas Carol,” fans lined the streets and camped out for tickets, said Caryl Farkas of Santa Fe’s Upstart Crows theater group.
The Crows will stage their own annual readings of the classic Christmas fable on Dec. 17, 23 and 25 in Santa Fe. They’ve been doing it, complete with a Victorian tea with cucumber sandwiches and scones, since 2016.
“It’s Dickens’ original performance script, the one he used,” Farkas said.
The troupe divided the script into three parts featuring Scrooge, a narrator and all of the other characters, such as Bob Cratchit, the ghosts and Tiny Tim.
“We are in Victorian garb,” Farkas said. “The gentlemen have Dickens waistcoats and tails and a top hat.”
The group has scheduled performances at the Unitarian Universalist Church because Dickens was a Unitarian, she added. There are also performances slated for Eldorado’s Performance Space at La Tienda.
When the show first appeared six years ago, it drew an audience of 10 to 15 people. Today it lures between 60 and 75 audience members, Farkas said.
Now people return every year.
“We had done something similar in Madison, Wisconsin,” she added. “It was wonderful. The text is wonderful. It’s so different from seeing a film of it. You’re really hearing Dickens’ voice and his use of language, which is nonparallel. He paints pictures.”
