The Library Vault

The overwhelmingly positive reactions we have had to our production of A Christmas Carol has brought home to me the importance of classic stories to people both as individuals and as a community. It was amazing how similar everyone’s reaction to this show has been. “A great performance.” “Dickens would love it.” “Phenomenal acting.” And the one I heard over and over: “I want to see it again.”

As individuals, we love the familiarity of well-known tales. Knowing the story relieves the anxiety of not knowing where the plot will take us, the stress of wondering what will happen to the characters. The familiar provides a safe space that lets us sink ourselves into the experience as if sinking into a warm bath. It’s soothing to our brains and our feelings. We hug it around us like a soft blanket.

That is one of the many reasons why A Christmas Carol continues to delight us nearly two centuries after it was first published. We all know the story; it is a part of our culture and our language. Shout out, “Bah! Humbug!” and everyone will immediately know what you are referring to. Call someone a Scrooge and we all get the same mental pictures in our brains.

But it is more than just the security of knowing the story. There is a pleasant anticipation in looking forward to a favorite quote or scene or character. Our brains anticipate the pleasure and then get to live the pleasure. Double your feelings, double your fun! It’s a feel-good cocktail without the side effects. We look forward to hearing that first “Bah! Humbug” from Scrooge. We delight (and sometimes shiver) when a ghost appears. We weep when Tiny Tim dies. We rejoice in the redemption at the end.

And this pleasure increases when it is a shared experience. When you sit in a room full of people who are experiencing the same story and reacting to the same moments, there is a uniting, a feeling of community created by shared emotions. This is powerful. Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of communication and it brings us together. We laugh and cry at the same things. We feel the emotions together and when that happens it creates a bond like no other.

Classic stories, whether from literature or from a time so old no one any longer knows where the stories originated, are often enjoyed as shared experiences. When presented as theater, the stories transform into a feeling of community, of fellowship. That is why tales from William Shakspeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, J.R.R. Tolkien and other great writers are made into movies and plays again and again. We know the stories, we long for the familiar tales, and we revel in the joy they bring us.

There are two more performances of A Christmas Carol at Russell Library: Saturday, December 20^th and Sunday, December 21^st. Both shows begin at 7pm and run one hour. Bring your family, bring your friends, or come by yourself and enjoy a night of shared feelings, shared memories, shared community, all things we could use a little more of in our lives.