Theatrefolk Featured Play: Humbug High – A Contemporary Christmas Carol by Lindsay Price

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight.  Are you ready to deck those halls? Or are you saying “Bah, humbug” to the holidays? Either way, you’re going to love Humbug High: A Contemporary Christmas Carol by Lindsay Price – a new take on the classic Dickens tale.

Eddie Scrooge is 17 years old. He hates his parents and his classmates. His only goal in life is to make money and keep his heart ice-cold. He carries his own low temperature always about him and doesn’t thaw one degree at Christmas.

He is on his way to becoming a miserly, miserable, tight-fisted hand to the grindstone, until one Christmas season he is taken on a journey by Madge, the lunch lady, and the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future. Scrooge is about to meet the errors of his ways face-to-face.

Let’s hear from the author!

1. Why did you write this play?
Not only is adaptation my favourite form of writing, A Christmas Carol is one of my favourite stories. It’s such a universal tale of humanity, which is the reason it’s been transformed so many times over the years. The way Dickens writes characters is so vivid it was a treat to transform them into modern versions. The story tells itself so it’s important to have strong unique characters. 

2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. 
Everyone can find the true meaning of Christmas in their heart. Sometimes it takes a couple of ghosts and a dead lunch lady.

3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? 
When Madge, the dead lunch lady and Eddie’s only friend appears as a ghost covered in a chain of her own making made of pots, pans, and soup ladles. She tells him the truth of what’s going to happen if he doesn’t change his ways (and pushes him to get a girlfriend). I love the mix of raising the stakes in the story and Madge’s sense of humour.

4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? 
Character, character, character. Everyone knows the story, so share it through the eyes of human beings and not actors saying lines. There’s a lot of fun to be had in the play, but the genuine journey of the characters is most important.

5. Why is this play great for student performers? 
Great characters share a well known story that was written just for them. Who wouldn’t want to play Scrooge as a teenager?