“A Christmas Carol”

Yesterday I went to Salem, MA with a bunch of friends from church to see the play “A Christmas Carol” presented on a trolley ride.  This was the third time I had seen it and it was just as much fun as the first two times.

We arrived in Salem early enough to browse through some shops and have some pizza before the play.  Despite a rain that kept falling at a steadier rate, we managed to see some of the shops down by the waterfront.  I bought a few presents for my brother, Ted, but I can’t say what they are because I want him to be surprised when he opens his Christmas gifts.  I know he will think they are funny because they cracked me up!

The play itself started in a shop called Salemdipity.  We gathered together among the racks of tourist sweatshirts and other novelty gifts and waited.  After a few minutes, Bob Crachit appeared.  He gave us brief instructions (no cell phones, no texting, no food or drink, etc.) and then he had a couple of the kids with us learn a line or two in order to play begging children.  See, what I didn’t explain before is that it was an interactive play. Meaning, the audience members were part of the production.  One never knew when one would be pulled into the action.  I knew this ahead of time so I tried to stay in the background.  Tried to…. at least.

The play then progressed.  Ebenezer Scrooge appeared, they did a brief little part in the store (the kids were great as the begging children) and then he hustled us into the trolley.  After we were all on board, he went through and gave nicknames to a bunch of people. I think this was not only because it was funny but also it was a way for him to keep track of people as we got on and off the trolley.  They didn’t want to leave anyone behind at any of the stops.  So Scrooge went through the trolley naming people “Barbie and Ken, and Ken and Barbie (to the two couples up front), little kids, little kids (the kids sitting in the front section), single guy and then single woman (to the guy sitting in the row in front of me and then to me), Matlock (to my friend Mary’s father), Lady in Red (to my friend Cathy – Mary also became the other lady in red later)” and finally “Swiss Family Robinson (to my friends in the back row)”.  Not everyone got a nickname but he named enough that he knew where people were and it made us all laugh.

I won’t go through the whole play but it generally went that the different ghosts would get on the trolley at different time.  We also stopped a few places and went into places to see parts of the play indoors.  The kids were all pulled in to play the Crachit children and one of our older gentlemen was pulled in to play Tiny Tim (which was hilarious because he couldn’t remember his line “God bless us everyone!”)

Part way through the play, when Scrooge was scared by one of the ghosts, he tried to sit on my lap for protection.  This, of course, made my friends laugh and my face turn red (being really fair, I blush really easily).  At the end of the play, and something that I will probably not live down for a while, Scrooge shamelessly flirted with me in a comic/mocking way as he danced around the trolley after the visit of the last spirit.  I could feel my face blush even more and I managed to turn my head but I think the people I was with saw it.  The kids were all teasing me as we finally left the trolley and I laughed along with them because it was pretty funny.  Unfortunately they heard Scrooge, as he handed out chocolate coins to the audience as they descended the trolley, say “my phone number is on the back” as he handed me my coin.  That really ratcheted up the teasing.  So I said to the kids “really, does Julie Scrooge even sound good???”  Didn’t help matters any but it was funny.

All in all, it was a great time and I am hoping we can do it again.  I just need to figure out where I can sit where I won’t be singled out.  Hard to do on a trolley but I will give it my best effort.