A few thoughts on C.V. Barnett's stage adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" from 1844...
It's interesting that the success of the book was so great that it led to stage versions pretty quickly. As I understand it, copyright laws being what they were at the time, these plays did not have to be authorized by Charles Dickens.
That seems astonishing, as they use his characters, plot and even namedrop Dickens himself! Does subtitling it "The Miser's Warning" make everything OK?
Whatever the case, in looking back at this particular play, it covers just about everything in the book, with the few little changes we looked at yesterday.
I generally like an adaptation to have some little things changed here and there as long as it doesn't stray too far. I don't want just the same thing over and over.
I wonder if Charles Dickens himself ever saw or read one of the many plays based on his book and thought that the changes made sense.
He wrote the book quickly, so there may have been ideas that he would have included if he had more time.
He used to edit his reading copy that he used for public performances, but he didn't change things too much. He didn't go totally "George Lucas" on it!
In any event, there have been many adaptations since, some that take many more liberties than this one did.
As always, the more things change, the more they stay the same!
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