A Christmas Carol is a familiar tale. Familiar not just to the average English speaker, it is a tale that should be especially familiar to audiences of the Iowa Stage Theater Company (ISTC).
Over the years, ISTC has made an annual production of A Christmas Carol a tradition, often repeating actors and crew year to year. Even in this repetition, though, the theater has taken care to add variety.
In previous years, ISTC has used a version of Charles Dickens’ staple story adapted by Michael Wilson. This year (as well as last) the troupe takes on an adaptation from Larry Carpenter.
Premiering Dec. 5, the 2025 run of A Christmas Carol is playing in Des Moines’ Stoner Theater through Sunday, Dec. 21.
Having seen (and enjoyed) the Wilson adaptation in 2023, I walked into this staging thinking I knew more or less what to expect, and found myself pleasantly surprised.
There is not much tweaking needed for A Christmas Carol. It is a simple and elegant story in which a miserly old man — famous for hoarding wealth and killing good cheer — is haunted for the better by four ghosts.
Like Shakespeare, A Christmas Carol is so firmly fixed in the English canon that any major tweaks would be noticed and, by-and-large, frowned upon. That said, when leaping from novella length text to 110-minute stage adaptation, some changes are expected.
Here, I noted two major changes. Firstly, the inclusion of Christmas songs, a not-outlandish addition that proves a nice feature for the show, driving home the sense of community embedded in the production.
Secondly, is the decision to make the Ghost of Christmas Present (played by Craig Petersen) the narrator for most of the story. It’s a clever move I was surprised to not have seen before.
It’s also worth noting that — either by choice of script or cast and crew — this adaptation plays up the humor, making it more accessible for kids joining their parents at the theater. On top of that, the cast executes their roles with pitch perfection.
John Earl Robinson plays a delightfully stern and sour Ebenezer Scrooge. Between his costuming and Robinson’s own physical performance, it took no time at all to accept him as the show’s humbug-howling penny-pincher. He sells Scrooge’s transformation with similar ease, making the audience root for his redemption.
Marley’s Ghost, played by Jamal Johnson, proves frightening in his portrayal and creative in staging. The ghost of Christmas Past is brought to life by Davida D. Williams with a genuine joy that illuminates the stage. Petersen similarly brings Present to life with joviality that turns to judgment on a dime.
What is perhaps most striking, though, is an addition to the script just before the end of the show. Present addresses the audience to affirm that Dickens’ tale was designed for the kind of tumultuous time we find ourselves in now.
A Christmas Carol has been a story for “times like these” for the last 180-odd years. I am simultaneously comforted and saddened to know that there will be “times like these” for many more Christmases ahead.
Isaac Hamlet has, at various points, been an arts and entertainment reporter and editor based in Iowa City and Des Moines. He also writes fantasy books under the pseudonym R.E. Bellesmith.
