Acclaimed actor Rod Beattie returns to the museum with “A Christmas Carol”

Rod Beattie performs in the one-man adaptation of “A Christmas Carol.”

Return to the Stratfor Perth Museum again this year for the iconic performance of Rod Beattie’s one-man show, “A Christmas Carol.”

Watch Beattie delight the audience as he seamlessly morphs from one beloved character to the next. He always thought the performed versions of the Dickens classic have been too long, claiming it is a ghost story and should only be about an hour long. He also thought someone could write the essence of the story in a format of about an hour and it would be a better representation of the book in a live form.

“I thought, hey, I could do that. Then I thought who could I get to play a whole bunch of different characters in the same outing and I thought, hey, I could do that,” Beattie said. “The first thing I did was to cut what I regard as the preachy bits. There’s quite a lot that is heavily religious. I always sort of glossed over that. Then I streamlined. Dickens is a wonderful and economic writer but it is mid 19th-century prose and that’s not what you would call page turning now.”

He stayed true to Dickens’ language – there was little that he changed – though there are two things he stole from Alistair Simms’ film. What those things are, he is tight lipped about, so keep an eye out for something that might seem uncharacteristically familiar.

Shifting from character to character takes great skill and Beattie is well practiced in the art as those acquainted with his character, Walt Wingfield, and the Dan Needles series Letters from Wingfield farm will attest. For “A Christmas Carol,” he has cast a number of different actors he knows as characters in the story and morphs into them seamlessly.

“In this case, the narrator is Canadian as he talks just as I talk. The characters are rich so I got to cast a number of actors that I have known or known of and that was a lot of fun. I’ve changed the cast a bit from time to time as I’ve become more certain who they are modelled for,” shared Beattie.

Scrooge is the one that he has changed the most because he had his influence of his dad reading the story to him as a child and also had a record of Lionel Barrymore reading the story. While he’s been told that some of his influences on characters are recognizable, he hesitates to reveal his inspirations.

“For example, the ghost of Christmas past is Sir John Gielgud. He is a great British actor. He was Hamlet, he was the valet in the movie, Arthur,” he said, refusing to share any more.

As with any actor in any role, or in this case many roles, there are favourite moments in the story that Beattie enjoys performing.

“The gradual appearance of Jacob Marley is quite the masterpiece. It’s one of the things we haven’t changed much at all, it is trimmed down a bit but it’s a brilliant piece of writing. And of course, when Scrooge’s reformation happens and he wakes up born again, that’s one of the great moments in literature or in theatre. There’s a hint in it that he may have dreamed it,” said Beattie.

This year, proceeds from ticket sales are, in part, being donated to the charity, A Child’s Smile. There will be six performances; Dec. 14, 15, 20, 21, 22 and 23, all at 2 p.m. at the Stratford Perth Museum. At $45 each, tickets can be purchased at www.stratfordperthmuseum.ca/rod-beatties-a-christmas-carol.