В нашей школе с углубленным изучением английского языка ГБОУ СОШ №1944 СЗАО г. Москвы есть множество традиций. Одной из них является постановка рождественского спектакля восьмиклассниками.
На Рождество 2011 года было выбрано произведение Чарльза Диккенса «Рождественская история». На первый взгляд может показаться, что это не самый лучший выбор для русской аудитории для весёлого новогоднего торжества, так как этот рассказ не повествование о тех людях, которые веселятся и радуются в Рождество, а напоминание о тех, которые страдают и нуждаются в нашей помощи. Конечно, мы постарались сделать наш спектакль интересным и захватывающим, добавив комедийные элементы и сохранив мистическую нить сюжета.
Спектакль рассчитан на среднюю школу и длится около часа. Количество участников можно варьировать, но наша задача была задействовать как можно больше детей (из 90 человек участвовало 60). Для этого были задействованы все поющие дети из 8-ых классов (carollers), танцующие (Fred’s party), школьный ансамбль (rock band "Carol of the Bells"). Специально для этого спектакля была нарисована программа с глоссарием (Приложение 1).
Ход спектакля
Scene 1.
Victorian London street. It gets busier and busier with people
putting wreaths on doors, little boys begging for change, market sellers with
goods multiplying.
Carol 1: Bleak Midwinter.
Caroller/Narrator 1: Ladies and gentlemen! And especially to all my young friends.
All Carollers: Good Evening!
Caroller/Narrator 2: May I present our company of poor carollers who, tonight, with your kind permission will present a ghost story. A ghost Christmas story.
Caroller/Narrator 3: And so a little Christmas Ghost music, please… Carollers sing in ghostly voices.
Caroller/Narrator 4: So, come back with us in your imagination to the night of Christmas Eve, exactly one hundred and fifty years ago.
Caroller/Narrator 5: Come with us to ice-covered streets, lit only with gas lamps, to a certain miserable street and a certain gloomy house in the heart of London town. Windy, miserable and cold is the weather but not as cold and not as miserable as the heart the man who sits inside.
All Carollers: Ebenezer Scrooge, the firm of Scrooge and Marley, dealers in money.
Scene 2.
Marley and Scrooge: 2 desks, Cratchit and Scrooge are sitting at
their desks. Carollers are singing outside.
Scrooge: Damn that noise! Shut it, you, useless delinquents! (Carol stops.)
Scrooge (returning to his desk): A man is busy doing business, being busy with his accounts and they are – pah! – singing! They are having fun, little brats!
Cratchit (in a very shy voice): It is Christmas Eve, Sir…
Scrooge (Leaning over Cratchit, Cratchit gets even smaller at his desk): Christmas Eve?! Christmas Eve?! That is the last day when those who have borrowed money from me this year can pay it back! THAT is what Christmas Eve is for me!
Cratchit (in a very shy voice): Yes, Mr Scrooge, Sir…
The clock strikes 5.
Cratchit (in a very shy voice): Mr Scrooge…
Scrooge: No!
Cratchit (in a very shy voice): I was just going to observe that it was five o’clock, Sir…
Scrooge: And your time is seven o’clock. You OWE me for two more hours of work! You ARE in MY DEBT.
Cratchit (begging): May I be allowed home early, Sir… Just this once, Sir… I saw something bright and colorful and very cheap in the toyshop window. I would really like to get it for my boy, tiny Tim. The shop closes at six
Scrooge: A toy shop? A toy shop? I must give you too much time off for you be able to visit such places! You time is seven and your boy Tim might die for all I care! Pah!
Cratchit (in a very shy voice): Yes, Sir…
Fred and Mrs Fred enter through the audience, laughing and chasing each other. Fred is climbing on stage to visit Scrooge, his wife calls after him.
Mrs Fred: Fred! Fred Scrooge!
Fred: Darling it will only take a moment.
Mrs Fred: But why, why are you doing it every year? He never ever comes.
Fred: Everyone hates him. Even the blind men’s dogs know him and run away. He is the loneliest person in the world. He is my uncle and I must invite him!
Mrs Fred: But he never…
Fred enters Marley and Scrooge.
Fred: Merry Christmas, uncle, God bless you!
Scrooge: Humbug! What reason have you got to be merry? You are poor enough!
Fred: And you are rich enough! What reason have you got to be miserable?
Scrooge: What else should I be when the world is full of fools like you? What is merry about Christmas for you if not a time to find yourself a year older and not a single penny richer? Fool! Every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" on his lips should be boiled in his own Christmas pudding! And buried with a stick of holly through his stupid heart.
Fred: Come, have Christmas dinner with us, uncle!
Scrooge: Not before I burn in Hell!
Fred: But why, uncle? Why so cold hearted?
Scrooge: Why did you get married to that stupid, non-glamorous, poor, simple girl after I forbade it?
Fred: Because I fell in love!
Scrooge (disgusted): You…fell…in love? You…fell…in love? Good afternoon, Sir!
Fred: Well whether you accept it or not our invitation is here. (places an invitation on Scrooge’s desk). Merry Christmas!
Scrooge (disgusted): Good afternoon!
Fred: And a Happy New Year!
Scrooge (disgusted): Good afternoon!
Fred gives Cratchit a small coin.
Fred: Merry Christmas to you, Bob Cratchit and to all your family.
Cratchit (in a very shy voice): The very same to you, sir, compliments of the season.
Scrooge (disgusted): Good afternoon!
Carollers are singing louder. Carollers approach the office. Scrooge gets a candlestick (candelabra) from his desk and comes to the door. He waves candelabra in the air and opens door. There are 2 ladies philanthropists. One of them is holding a ledger and looks like an accountant.
1st philanthropist: The prosperous firm of Scrooge and Marley I believe? Am I addressing Mr. Scrooge or Mr. Marley?
Scrooge: My partner Jacob Marley has been dead for 7 years. He died seven years ago on this very night.
2nd philanthropist: We have no doubt that his generosity shall be well represented by his partner.
Scrooge: Generosity? Ge-ne-what?
1st philanthropist: At this festive season it is more than usually desirable that we should provide for the poor who suffer greatly in this cold season! Hundreds and thousands of people are in great need in this city!
Scrooge: What do you mean: the poor are in need? Are there no prisons?
2nd philanthropist: There are plenty of prisons, Sir…
Scrooge: What about workhouses, are they still in operation?
1st philanthropist: But my dear sir, these hard institutions offer no comfort to those in need especially in this festive season. That is why a few of us, the philanthropists, are trying to raise some funds to buy some food and drink for the poor so that they can celebrate. So, what can I put you down for?
Scrooge: Nothing.
2nd philanthropist: You wish to remain anonymous?
Scrooge: Anonymous? A-no-ny-mous? I wish to be left alone. I don’t make myself merry at Christmas and I will not help lazy people get merry this time a year. Through taxation (which I avoid but still) I help those in need. Those badly in need should go to workhouses.
1st philanthropist: In workhouses families are split, parents never get to see their children, brothers and sisters never get to know each other, children are banned from learning to read and write, people are treated like animals. Many would rather die than go there.
2nd philanthropist: Many would rather die!
Scrooge: Then they should die and decrease the surplus population!
1st philanthropist: If you would come with us through the streets we have walked down tonight and see the poor and see the needy, see through their eyes the passers by in their overpriced vehicles, loaded with Christmas presents! You would know then!
2nd philanthropist: You would know then.
Scrooge: It’s none of my business, ladies! Good afternoon!
Scrooge and Cratchit write with their feathers.
Scrooge: I suppose you would want a full day off tomorrow!
Cratchit: That would be quite convenient, sir!
Scrooge: Convenient? Con-veni-ent? It’s not convenient at all: I have to pay you for a whole day that you would not work!
Cratchit: It’s only once a year!
Scrooge: Still, a poor excuse for robbing a man of his money. Christmas! Pah! Humbug!
Scene 3.
Victorian London street. It’s Christmas eve, late at night.
Carollers are singling. Caroller/Narrators are talking. Scrooge is walking very slowly across the stage.
Caroller/Narrator 1: It was Christmas Eve one hundred and fifty years ago. Ebenezer Scrooge took his melancholy supper in his usual melancholy tavern where he read all FREE newspapers and did NOT tip the waiter, as usual.
Caroller/Narrator 2: He then spent the rest of his evening looking lovingly at his accounts books especially at the names of people who still owed him money.
Caroller/Narrator 3: Finally, Mr. Scrooge of Marley and Scrooge, Dealers in Money, set off on his journey home, to his melancholy house. When he approached his melancholy door, however, something else happened…
Caroller/Narrator 5: Jacob Marley was dead. Imagine then the emotions of Ebenezer Scrooge when the door knocker which he had seen night and morning for many years had now not the appearance of the door knocker but that …. of Jacob Marley’s face…
Scrooge: Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Caroller/Narrator 5: And not a dead face either…
Scrooge: Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Caroller/Narrator 4: But then at once it was a door knocker again.
All lights go. Darkness and change of scene.
Scene 4.
Scrooge’s bedroom. A big bed (ideally four-poster) in the middle
but somehow the (front) door is preserved. Scrooge is sitting on his bed,
breathing heavily.
Scrooge: It must have been that cheap cheese. Damn cheese on sale! Humbug!
Ghostly voice: Scrooooooooooooooooooooooooge!
Scrooge: Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
The sounds of ghostly church bells, ghostly carols, female screams, children crying.
Ghostly voice (it is coming from several places at once): Scrooooooooooooooooooooooooge!
Scrooge: Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Scrooge falls on his knees and covers his ears with his hands.
All lights go. Darkness. Appears Jacob Marley – very pale, covered in heavy golden chains of various sizes including, well, golden chains. He comes over to Scrooge and taps his shoulder. Marley is standing with his ghostly face to the audience but behind Scrooge.
Jacob Marley (in most normal voice): Scrooge! Ebenezer Scrooge!
Scrooge: Oh, thanks God it was only discounted cheese. I must have been seeing things. He turns around and sees the ghost.
Scrooge: Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Jacob Marley: Scrooge! Ebenezer Scrooge!
Scrooge: Jacob? Jacob Marley? Go away, ghost. I don’t believe it, I won’t believe it! I will never buy cheese on sale! I will never pick free mushrooms in the woods!
Jacob Marley: Scrooge! Come on!
Scrooge: God save me! I promise to stop drinking….
