"A Christmas Carol! or Past, Present & Future" (1844)
Adaptor: Edward Stirling
We now take a look at the playbill for another early stage adaptation of "A Christmas Carol," this one with "Past, Present & Future" tagged on.
Edward Stirling must have started adapting the book right away, as the date of the first show was February 5, 1844, not much more than a month after it was published!
I don't have the text of this stage version available, but the playbill does give quite a bit of information about the show amongst the hyperbole, with a few things that make you wonder.
The first thing that seems a bit different is "Dr. Dilworth (a Pedagogue)" listed in the cast for "Stave the First." This would likely be the schoolmaster from Scrooge's boyhood. As with several characters in the original book, he's not named.
We also have the Belle stand-in, named "Bella Morton" here. Belle's named gets changed more than any other character's, it seems. I think the description of her as "Scrooge's first, his only love, save gold" is awesome!
We also seem to get a full complement of Cratchit children in "Stave Second," with Tiny Tim, Martha, Peter nd Belinda, along with Tom and Sally, the traditionally unnamed younger kids with a penchant for putting spoons in their mouths!
While names are being handed out to characters, we have Mr. Topper and Mr. Floss, described as "Worldly Friends of Old Scrooge," who most likely would be the gentlemen talking about him in the future. This is obviously not the same Topper who steals the show at Fred's party.
Along with Old Joe, there's Mrs. Dibler (misspelled again!), properly identified as the laundress, and Mr. Blink, the newly-christened undertaker's man. No mention of the charwoman, however.
The mystery to me is the character listed as "Sally, (a Nurse)" toward the end. Who could that be?
In any case it looks like a fun show.
As for the claim that this is "The only one by permission pf Charles Dickens, Esq." - nope, I don't buy it!
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