Dickens' "Xmas Carol" from 2YA

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 23, 19 December 1930, Page 5

Dickens' "Xmas Carol" from 2YA

| By Clement May and Company (COMPLETE with carol singers, chimes and incidental music, Charles Dickens’s immortal "‘Christmas Carol" will be presented at 2YA on Tuesday, December 23. The producer will be Mr. Clement May, the eminent English actor-elocutionist, now resident in Wellington, and he has selected such a cast of characters that the success of the radio presentation of one of the most famous stories ever written is assured. In other countries Mr. May has broadcast this "‘Christmas Carol’’ to the delight of all who have heard it. He himself will take the role of Scrooge. Mr. May, who is a much-travelled artist, has specialised in Dickens characters, and is acknowledged to be one of their finest exponents. His delineations are lifelike and true to the spirit in which the great ‘master drew them. Lovers of Dickens will revel in this radio presentation of one of his most loved writings, so admirably in keeping with the spirit of Christmas, Could there be a better description than the following of the day which helped to redeem that old curmudgeon, Scrooge? ** . . » It was cold, bleak, biting weather, foggy withal.... The city clock had just gone three, it was quite dark already; it had not been light all day, and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears on the palpable brown air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms .... It was piercing, searching, bitter cold." The theme of "Christmas Carol" is Dickens in essence, for in it his love for humanity and his love of fun are all-embracing: "Marley was dead! To begin with .... as dead as a doornail. Mind, I don’t mean to say that I know of my own knowledge what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the place. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in simile; and my unhallowed hand shall not disturb it, or the country’d be done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat emphatically that Marley was as dead as a door-nail."’ Scrooge was just the sort of fellow who would resent anyone wishing him "a Merry Christmas,’ and would call it "‘all humbug.’ But in one night Scrooge’s outlook on life changed completely, and when he arose on Christmas morning he was a regenerated character. The story is told in three scenes: SCENE If. The office of Scrooge and Marley---Time: Christmas Eve. SCENE Il. The home of Scrooge-Time: Midnight. The Dream-The coming of Marley’s Ghost. Vision 1-Scrooge as a boy at school. Vision 2-Scrooge’s sweetheart. Vision 3--Bob Cratchitt’s Christmas party. Vision 4--Tht news of the death of Scrooge. Vision 5-Bob Cratchitt’s home. Vision 6-The home of Fred (Scrooge’s nephew). Vision 7-The Churchyard. The Reformation of Scrooge. SCENE. Il. The office of Scrooge and Marley. Christmas eve. The Carol Singers-The Chimes-and incidental music by the orchestra. CAST OF CHARACTERS (As they will be heard). BOB CRATCHITT (Clerk to Scrooge) ....0-csccc00++Mr. B. Cahill MR. MIDDLEMARK ...... coocecccccccvccccccce oly, John Storr SCROOGE (the Miser) ...-cccccscccccceccoscecses+CLEMENT MAY FRED (his nephew). .......- coe ecccoe ecoccoecces eC cdric Muir THE GHOST OF MARLEY (a former partner of Scrooge) .eccecccccecevesecsvcesescvsccece Errol Muir ° VISIONARY CHARACTERS ° SCROOGE as a Boy. ....ceeccccce wecccce evccceccs Audrey May FANNY (his sister). ....... occcccecoece eooeccoe sHileen Bass SCROOGE’S SWEETHEART. ....cccccceccc eecee+Margaret O'Halloran MR. WORTHINGTON. eeccoscsectcaveccscovevc coed H, Paterson PETER (a boy). ..eccccceccccccceccccecccecvccccehovert Chyne SCROOGE’S NIECE, esccceceteceecccccccccccccce betty Day MARTHA (Bob Cratchitt’s daughter), ..0-c¢cccesces+ 1 ui Hall TINY TIM. .....-. een ecenccvcces se eeee joevevecee-lvene Nelson MRS. CRATCHITT. ote ec ecreccescectcoc oc ceccce eMadge Thomas ’ BELINDA, = pccocceecccevcvcceeec cca v cc ce omee oLvElyn Goldsmith