A Christmas Carol, By Charles Dickens, Performed by Gerald Charles Dickens. Until November, 20 at the Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts, 1 Front Street East **** Some people believe the Christmas season started yesterday afternoon at the Santa Claus Parade. I prefer to think it began last night at the Hummingbird Centre. That's where Gerald Charles Dickens—the great-great-grandson of the man himself—presented his ancestor's seasonal gift to mankind, A Christmas Carol. It's not a reading or a dramatization, but the best of both. Dickens has the entire 75 minute script fully memorized and he uses his face, voice and body with the verve of a skilled performer. There is a desk, a chair, a lamp, a table, but nothing else. And nothing else is needed. Who needs lighting cues when you have Dickens' prose to describe how "the candles flared like ruddy smears upon the brown air'? Why bother with sound effects when you have the master to tell you when the chime has struck "the deep dull hollow melancholy one"'?

What you do have is probably the greatest Christmas story ever written, a saga of love, loss, sadness and redemption with a message as profoundly hopeful as any ever penned: There is still time for all of us to make it right. Dickens the actor gets full value from Dickens the author. Every beloved character, every well-known moment comes to fresh and vivid life. The secret is energy. Dickens dashes through the audience, runs around the stage and pauses just long enough to liberate a laugh or let a moment breathe, dispelling any idea that this is some stuffy piece of Victoriana. The characters live, and the text lives with them. I even noticed some lines I never had before, like the observations that, "It is good to be children sometime." It was good to be children last night, hearing a wonderful story told us by a gifted storyteller. You have one more chance to catch it for yourself, this afternoon at l:00 p.m. As Tiny Tim said, "God bless us, everyone."

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