A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas Returns to Olney

The holiday season in the DC area is about to get a little more Dickensian again. A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas returns to Olney Theatre Center from November 28 through December 28, bringing back the beloved solo adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic just a short drive from the District. This long-running tradition has become a centerpiece of Olney’s holiday programming for more than a decade and a half, drawing audiences who come back year after year to revisit Ebenezer Scrooge’s journey from miser to mensch.

A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas at Olney Theatre Center

This edition once again features Olney favorite Michael Russotto, returning for his second holiday season at the center of the story. In this unique staging, Russotto performs the tale alone, portraying nearly 50 different characters over the course of the evening, from the flinty Scrooge and his overworked clerk Bob Cratchit to the full Cratchit family, Scrooge’s nephew Fred, and the trio of Christmas spirits who upend his life in a single night. It’s an enormous technical and emotional undertaking: the role involves delivering roughly 13,000 words of Dickens’ text, shifting constantly in voice, posture, and personality so each character feels distinct and alive.

What makes Olney’s version especially distinctive is its commitment to Dickens’ original concept. The adaptation, conceived and originally staged by Paul Morella, is built on the idea of a single storyteller, echoing the public readings Dickens himself used to give. Nearly all of the language—about ninety-nine percent—comes directly from the novella, preserving its humor, spookiness, and moral urgency. For audiences accustomed to heavily revised or streamlined versions of A Christmas Carol, this production offers a rare chance to experience the story almost exactly as it was written, yet delivered in a way that feels immediate and theatrical rather than literary or distant.

The setting amplifies that sense of intimacy. Staged in the 125-seat Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab, the production surrounds Russotto with a carefully cluttered landscape of Victorian objects—books, lamps, clocks, coal scuttles, and other period touches that can become props at a moment’s notice. Real candles flicker onstage, footlights glow around the playing space, and subtle projections evoke everything from falling snow to ghostly apparitions. Sound design layers in tolling bells, clanking chains, and the distant cries of spirits, while lighting shifts from warm candlelit glow to chilling shadow as the ghost story deepens. The result is an atmosphere that feels both cozy and uncanny—like being invited into a Victorian parlor for an evening of storytelling that just happens to include a few very persuasive ghosts.

At the heart of it all is the familiar arc of Scrooge’s transformation. The production traces his path from a man who scoffs at charity and compassion to someone who finally understands his responsibilities to his neighbors and his community. The visits from the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come are rendered with an eye toward both the supernatural chill of the tale and its emotional core: memories of lost love, the quiet courage of the Cratchit family, and the chilling glimpse of a world in which Scrooge dies unmourned. Because the adaptation hews so closely to Dickens’ text, themes of economic inequality, neglect of the poor, and the consequences of indifference feel surprisingly current, making the story resonate with today’s headlines as much as with Victorian London.

For Russotto, the solo format allows him to inhabit these contrasts in real time. One moment he’s a pinched, cold Scrooge hunched over his ledger; the next, he’s Scrooge’s hearty nephew, the gentle Tiny Tim, or the booming, larger-than-life Ghost of Christmas Present. Without masks or elaborate costume changes, he relies instead on precise shifts in voice, gesture, and rhythm to signal who is speaking, drawing the audience into the game of imagination that the production invites. That sense of watching one actor conjure an entire world is a big part of why the show has become a tradition for many families around the region.

The experience is designed to be accessible while still honoring the richness of the original text. The running time is about two hours with an intermission, and guidance from Olney suggests it’s best suited to older children and teens—roughly middle school and up—who can follow the language and enjoy the ghostly elements without being overwhelmed. For adults who grew up with A Christmas Carol in one form or another, this production offers the pleasure of hearing favorite passages delivered live, while discovering details and turns of phrase that might have been lost in other versions.

With performances running November 28 through December 28, A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas is well-positioned as a centerpiece outing in the busy holiday calendar—whether you’re planning a night out with friends, a multigenerational family trip, or a special seasonal tradition of your own. For DC-area theatergoers, it’s a chance to step out of the rush of the season, settle into the glow of the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab, and watch one actor spin a timeless story of ghosts, generosity, and second chances—just as Dickens first imagined it, but very much alive in the present day.

To see a list of all holiday shows in DC, visit our Holiday Plays In DC page.