A Christmas Carol, Short Playscript:

Chris Martin is a published author and internationally successful playwright. Here, he has written a short ‘play version’ of Dickens’ famous Christmas tale for use in schools. Either…
As an assembly?
A short entertainment piece?
Or simply to be read out as part of a class literacy activity?
The lively, popular piece can be downloaded here as a 3,000 word, 12 page, Word document with a running/reading time of approximately 15 to 20 minutes. It has 18 named characters of which ‘Scrooge’ is the only significant role. There is, however, plenty of scope for doubling-up making the piece suitable for a much smaller cast. Likewise, there are two mimed sections where non-speaking characters can be added making it appropriate for larger class groups, too.

The piece is a shortened version of Dickens’ novel. Snippets of original text do appear but, in general, the language has been greatly simplified to make it accessible for readers/performers of all ages. There has been no attempt to modernise the story… the short play all the original character names and is loyal to the traditional Victorian tale of an old miser who’s asked to reflect upon his life by three ghosts. (Or, rather, ‘four’ ghosts if Jacob Marley’s included!). The staging requirements for the piece have been kept to minimum for ease of staging, and these are clearly identified within the text.
Ex-teacher Chris has produced this short play many times in school and can guarantee its effectiveness, and popularity, in performance.