John D. Huston delivers his one-man A Christmas Carol as Dickens “intended it to be experienced”

Let’s face it: A Christmas Carol is synonymous with Christmas. 

Charles Dickens’ ghost story of redemption, goodwill and the transformative power of compassion is universally relatable – I mean, who doesn’t know someone who’s at least a bit like Ebenezer Scrooge? And since its publication 180 years ago, the story’s enduring popularity has inspired countless adaptations on the stage and screen.

Back in 1991, renowned actor John D. Huston put his own unique stamp on the classic tale by mounting a solo adaptation which  proved so popular that it has toured annually ever since. Now in its 32nd season, A Christmas Carol with John D. Huston comes to Toronto’s Red Sandcastle Theatre on December 23 and 24 – just in time ahead of the big day.  

In the show, Huston’s performance showcases his extraordinary talent and versatility. He plays Charles Dickens narrating the story, and takes on the roles of multiple characters, ranging from the scowling Ebenezer Scrooge to the soft-voiced Tiny Tim. His version is a refreshing take on the classic Christmas story, and his ability to breathe new life into the familiar narrative continues to make it a captivating experience, even for those who know the story well. Huston’s personal connection to the story dates back to childhood: “My dad used to read us A Christmas Carol at bedtime every December”, he recalls. When he then saw the 1951 Alistair Sim-starring A Christmas Carol at public school, he remembers that “it terrified me, made me laugh, and cry. It’s the clearest memory I have of the first grade.”

The show is a principal outlet for Huston’s lifelong passion for the theatre, to which he was explosed by his adoptive parents in his hometown of Winnipeg, where “theatre for young audiences was a big thing, thanks to John Hirsch”. The specific inspiration for his solo version of A Christmas Carol dates back to Huston’s twenties, when his girlfriend of the time gifted him a book of Dickens’ solo scripts called Sikes and Nancy and Other Public Readings. Having already played characters like Fred, Old Joe, Fezziwig and Marley in multi-actor versions of A Christmas Carol, Huston was familiar with the classic story. Struck by the examples in the book, Huston connected the dots and saw both opportunity and challenge: “I’d already done a couple of 60-minute one-person shows at two of the larger Canadian Fringe festivals,” he explains, “so I knew I could do Christmas Carol, even though it was much longer.” 

But how to approach it – that was the question. Huston could see the unique draw of famed performers who had tackled a one-man A Christmas Carol – performers like Gerald Charles Dickens (Dickens’ great-great grandson) and actor Patrick Stewart. “They both have great hooks to draw audiences: Gerald has the family connection, and is a fine actor, too, I might add. And Patrick Stewart is…Patrick Stewart.” Playing to his strengths, Huston decided almost immediately that his hook would be: “This is the best known Christmas story, as its author intended it to be experienced.” 

Huston has a deep fascination and expertise in historical performance styles, which led to his graduate degree in Theatre Studies. Building on this strength, he conducted extensive research into Dickens’ “public readings”.  He paid especially close attention to detailed records of Dickens’ performances that included “voices, gestures, facial expressions.” Huston would root his approach to the performance in Dickens’ own theatrical style: in fact, he would aim to recreate the author’s delivery. Along the way, Huston even discovered that Dickens’ script for a narrated version of A Christmas Carol survives: “I have a copy on stage with me — so I also have his notes to consult.” 

The bottom line, then, is authenticity. “My show is as close to what Dickens did as I can manage”,  he explains, and this commitment significantly enhances the power of the performance. Playing Dickens is “rather fun: he takes such delight in his own writing, and in talking directly to the audience. In this great story and script, there’s always something new to find.” Indeed, Dickens himself is a treasure trove of inspiration. Sometimes called the “Shakespeare of the novel”, he created hundreds of memorable characters – many with unique and indelible names to match. Which from the two dozen or so in his stage version of A Christmas Carol are Huston’s favorites to portray on stage? Huston has the most fun with the smaller supporting roles, like Marley, the Plump Sister, Fred, Mrs. Cratchit, the “two smaller Cratchits”, and the Ghost of Christmas Present.  But of course, “Scrooge is the most interesting . . . because he goes on this wonderful redemptive journey rediscovering his humanity and place in the world”, an arc that is “a real gift for an actor”. 

A Christmas Carol with John D. Huston is certainly his most enduring accomplishment, but Huston has enjoyed a rich background in theatre, and has a passion for embodying diverse historical figures. “I’m Métis by descent, so I like to say that I’ve made a career culturally misappropriating the identities of dead White men,” he smiles. “I’ve played Tommy Douglas in Weyburn, Saskatchewan; William Lyon Mackenzie in Toronto; Shakespeare in London, England; and Dickens right across this country.” Back in 2017, he bucked this trend by landing his “dream role” of portraying Louis Riel in The Trial of Louis Riel for the 50th anniversary celebration of that production. 

As our conversation draws to a close, Huston offers some thoughts about his favorite film adaptation. He singles out Alistair Sim’s 1951 version for its fidelity to the spirit of Dickens’ work, despite including several scenes and characters that are not in the book: “No other version perfectly captures the medley of moods —horror, hilarity, heartache, human longing— that propels this story. Its evocation of the essence, if not always the letter, of Dickens’ ‘Ghost story for Christmas’ is unsurpassed: it’s easily my favourite.” (By contrast, he finds the 1999 film version with Patrick Stewart, which hews closest to Dickens’ text to be rather flat: “It lacks the giddy balance of humour, pathos and horror that the Sim’s version captures so well, and that is the core spirit of Dickens as a writer – and especially of this great story.”

In our time of fleeting trends and decreasing attention spans, A Christmas Carol’s grip on our hearts and imaginations almost defies description. Huston attributes the story’s enduring appeal to Dickens’ skillful world-building “—the fog, the cold, the parties, the sense of place and of course the relatability of his characters—” and the story’s themes of redemption and the healing power of love and human connection, set during a time of year when people can easily feel overwhelmed and cut off. “Even if we know nothing about Victorian England, most people can still understand what the characters are living through.”

This seems especially true when Huston performs A Christmas Carol – something he has done more than 750 times over three decades, and never with anything less than total delight. He has been praised for the care he takes in making each of the characters feel real, and for the range of accents and body language he deploys to bring them to life. And the show’s return to the Red Sandcastle Theatre is itself a neighbourhood holiday tradition that realizes the story’s universal themes within an intimate, immersive local performance.  

So yes, A Christmas Carol is synonymous with Christmas. And whether you’re inclined to ring in the season or just pause to contemplate its meaning, you won’t find a better way to do it than spending an afternoon or evening with the remarkable John D. Huston, as he brings Dickens and his iconic characters to vivid, heartfelt life. 

Click here to reserve tickets to A Christmas Carol with John D. Huston at the Red Sandcastle Theatre.

© Arpita Ghosal, Sesayarts Magazine, 2023