A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens in Clarence Brown Theatre, TN, USA.

The 16-foot-diameter clock face that hangs in the back of the stage The musical -- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, was on in Knoxville and I was keen to go and see it. In minutes after mentioning it, my generous Doc son, indulged his mum and had booked our tickets on his phone. Even though we got seats in the Q row as we booked the day before the show this was a fabulous, modern college theatre -- The Clarence Brown Theatre in the University of Tennessee campus. The seats gave us a fantastic birds eye view of the stage and ofcourse the sound was surround sound. As we walked in -- one of the last of course, as Americans always are early and never just in time, like us, the play's set had me stare in shock as we entered. The 16-foot-diameter clock face that hangs in the back of the stage, to help mark the passage of time, was an amazing back- drop, which set the tone for the musical.

Mr.Scrooge and Master Cratchit. Christmas is filled with traditions that, no matter how often they're repeated, are cherished each season. Apparently the Clarence Brown Theatre has a tradition of staging “ A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens' every year. The production of Dickens' story is one of ghosts, family and redemption. The hall was packed, with not a seat free with high energy young college kids and ofcourse Tennessee’s residents. It felt good zipping down to Knoxville in my son’s BMW and like any University, there was ample and free parking. Kids manned the parking and everything ran like clockwork. Dicken’s book is about the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge who deals with his past, present and future behavior as he takes a magical journey with the help of the Ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Future. The plays had much loved Christmas carols woven into the adaptation.

Poster of the show The book as we learn from history was written as a result of the authors desperate need for money. In 1843 Dickens and his wife were expecting his fifth child and were seriously short of cash. As Dickens wrote the book, he “ wept and laughed and wept again and he walked the dark streets of London for 15 or 20 miles a night while everyone else was in bed.”

We loved the show At odds with his publishers, he decided to self publish and worked a lavish gold embossed cover and hand coloured etchings. He kept the price low so it was affordable for everyone. The book was released just before the Christmas of 1843 and was an instant sensation, but due to the high production costs he made no profits. Plus pirated versions killed his profits still further as there were no copyright laws in England then. The UT theater has presented an adaptation of Dickens' 1843 story since 2007. The adaptation by Edward Morgan and Joseph Hanreddy has been the most loved one. “This is the third consecutive year for return of the popular Morgan-Hanreddy story that incorporates traditional Christmas music in a Victorian setting,” said the lady at the ticket counter, who checked our tickets on the phone and our ID’s. Since it was a University production, Jed Diamond, who is the UT theater department's head of acting played Scrooge. UT theater faculty member David Brian Alley played Scrooge's business partner Marley, and performed both as a dead ghost and a live miser. Visiting artist Kathleen Conlin directed the production and its cast of 31 cast members including Tiny Tim.

Costumes of 17th century England The play runs about two and a half hours with an intermission where the kids came back with bowls of ice-cream to enjoy in the depths of winter.