Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol

There?s more to Jacob Marley?s ghost than meets the eye. In this Festival 56 holiday performance, Marley, the first ghost in Dickens? Christmas Carol, reveals what he?s been doing for the seven years that have elapsed between his death and his famous translucent, shrieking, chain-clanking appearance in Scrooge?s parlor. Christmas Carol readers will recall Marley?s remorseful lament and warning to Scrooge to mend his hard-hearted ways. ?I wear the chain I forged in life? says the ghost, and Scrooge, for being a Scrooge, wears one too, ?full as heavy and as long as this.? But that?s not the half of it. In the hands of playwright Tom Mula, Jacob Marley?s Christmas Carol takes audiences through Marley?s seven-year-long ghostly crusade to redeem not only his own soul but Scrooge?s soul as well. He is accompanied in his efforts by a Bogle (think bogeyman), as they travel from the Jaws of Death to the Mouth of Hell ? and farther! This is a Jacob Marley whose re-imagined story contains echoes of not only the original Christmas Carol, but also of Lewis Carroll in what reviewers have called its ?zany? and ?irreverent? moments. But like its Dickensian ancestor, this ghost story has (spoiler alert) a happy ending. Jacob Marley?s Christmas Carol played for two seasons at Chicago?s Goodman Theatre, was nominated for four Joseph Jefferson Awards, and received an After Dark Award and the Goodman Theatre?s Cunningham Prize for Playwriting. It has been featured for seven seasons on NPR.