Never give up, that's my motto...

I love Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  As a child, I only knew it as the written story.  Then somewhere along the line, probably on late night tv, I saw the 1938 film with Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge. Of course, I've since seen a lot of newer film versions, too, including a modern adaptation, Scrooged, with Bill Murray.  And, I remember at least two animated versions, one that must be a Walt Disney interpretation starring one of Donald Duck's relatives and another with Mr. Magoo as Scrooge.  I admit it -- if there's an adaptation of Carol, I'm likely at least to give it a chance.  (There's even a free audiobook version available through LibriVox on archive.org.)  But it has to be pretty darn good (and few are) to merit a second viewing because Dickens' words are wonderful all on their own.

For 11 years I've been planning to see A Christmas Carol at Blackfriars Playhouse.  It's Dickens' work adapted for the stage, it's nearby and it's always performed by talented actors -- this year ASC's Almost Blasphemy Tour troupe.  Every year, I remember to check out the performance schedule months in advance and even go so far as to write in a few "good dates" on my calendar.  Then other things come up.  Things that, like this play, are only happening during the Christmas season.  And another year goes by.

But early last week a friend forwarded a note about a full dress rehearsal scheduled for Sunday evening and open to the public.  It wasn't on my calendar.  And we didn't have anything else on the calendar for that night, either.  So we finally made it to Blackfriars to see Carol.  And, boy, am I glad we did.  It was great!!  Now I just need to put it on the calendar for next year because we want to go back and watch it all over again...