Lantern Theater Company Presents A CHRISTMAS CAROL Live and Digital This Month

Lantern Theater Company will welcome back audiences with a remount of its original adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, commissioned and developed through the Lantern's New Play Program and co-created by Philadelphia theater artists Anthony Lawton, Christopher Colucci, and Thom Weaver. In this wonderfully clear and direct telling of Dickens' beloved novella, acclaimed actor and playwright Anthony Lawton brings the story boldly to life with drama and frankness, in a manner Dickens himself would recognize from his dramatic readings during his own lifetime. Lawton's compelling solo performance brings each character to life in this timeless story of a miser's miraculous redemption from a life of bitterness, greed, and isolation.

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol will be performed live at The Proscenium Theatre at The Drake Friday, December 3 - Thursday, December 30, 2021. To ensure a safe and comfortable return to live performances, all audience members 12 years of age and older will be required to present proof of full Covid-19 vaccination and a corresponding photo ID before entering the theater. All audience members are required to wear masks at all times while inside the theater building. For audience members who are unable to enjoy theater live in person or who prefer to watch from home, the Lantern will also be streaming a fully designed and edited film version of A Christmas Carol from December 14, 2021 - January 2, 2022. Tickets and information for both the live and digital productions are available online at www.lanterntheater.org.

Written in 1843, Dickens' holiday classic is famous for its ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future who help Scrooge see the error of his ways. But Dickens originally envisioned A Christmas Carol as a social justice pamphlet denouncing child labor and poverty entitled An Appeal to the People of England, on behalf of the Poor Man's Child. England in the 1840s was a time of rapid industrialization, massive population growth, and widening gulfs between the rich and the poor. Throughout his life, Dickens was highly sensitive to and outspoken about social issues, particularly those involving children and economic inequality.

"There are some stories so woven into the mythos of a culture that it seems impossible to imagine a time before they existed," said Lantern Artistic Director Charles McMahon. "A Christmas Carol is one of those stories. Stripped of holiday clichés, it is a devastating story, laying bare all the ugly forces that separate and isolate human beings from one another, turning life into a solitary torment. It is also a joyous story of one person's release from that torment just at the moment when it seems about to clasp him in its grip for all time. We are thrilled to return to live performance to again present this original adaption of A Christmas Carol - a unique version in which you will hear the simple power of the words and the characters told in a clear and simple human voice."

Lantern Theater Company will delve into the themes of A Christmas Carol on its Lantern Searchlight blog, available online at lanterntheater.org/searchlight. Published articles explore the world of Charles Dickens, the fascinating circumstances surrounding the writing of this holiday classic, A Christmas Carol in the nexus between Victorian economics and literature, and more.

Tickets for the live production of A Christmas Carol are $22 - $30 and are available online at lanterntheater.org or by calling the Lantern Box Office at (215) 829-0395. Discounts are available for students (discount code STUDENT19), U.S. military personnel (discount code BLUESTAR5), and groups of 10 or more. All performances of A Christmas Carol will take place at The Proscenium Theatre at The Drake, located at 302 S. Hicks St. in Center City Philadelphia.

Tickets for A Christmas Carol DIGITAL are $20 per household/device and are available online at www.lanterntheater.org or by calling the Lantern Box Office at (215) 829-0395. Closed captioning is available. Ticket buyers will receive an email confirmation with a private ticket access link, which will provide on-demand access to A Christmas Carol for one viewing during the December 14, 2021 - January 2, 2022 streaming period. The production can be viewed on most internet-connected devices with email/web browser access, including desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and select smart TVs. A Digital Dickens Pass is also available for $35, which includes one streaming ticket for A Christmas Carol DIGITAL and The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens & Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord by Scott Carter (streaming now through December 19, 2021).

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