A must-see for many during the Christmas season is Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” the beloved story of the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge.
CKLU Radio, in partnership with the Rotary Club of Sudbury and Sudbury Food Bank, presents “A Sudbury Christmas Carol,” a staged radio play on Dec. 14.
The event takes place at 2 p.m. in the Sheridan Auditorium of Sudbury Secondary School. The community and campus radio station has staged two popular staged radio plays in the past: “The Case of the Missing Mayor” and 'The Case of the Missing A.Y. Jackson.”
This fresh version of the traditional Dickens tale is set in the 1800s in Sudbury and the miserable miser in town is none other than Ebenezer Scrooge himself.
Scrooge retires to his home on Borgia Street one Christmas Eve only to be visited by a series of ghosts.
In keeping with the Sudbury theme, familiar locales are used. When Christmas Past takes Scrooge back to his elementary school, it's situated in Falconbridge.
Scrooge's office is on Durham Street and his clerk Bob Cratchit lives in Gatchell. This Sudbury version with its familiar places and people promises to delight audiences.
The story is narrated in 1905 by the comic and dramatic Sudbury Francophone Pierre Levesque who met Charles Dickens in Montreal in 1842 when he was only a child.
While there, he tells Dickens the story of the crotchey Scrooge.
Written by Judi Straughan, the cast features many Sudbury notables like CBC Radio-Canada's Dan Aubin; Sudbury.com's Mark Gentili; CBC Radio journalist Warren Schlote; singer/actor Anita Ansamaa; Le Loup Radio host Eric Lapalme; actor/writer Matthew Heiti; former CBC and CTV personality Peter Williams; former CTV personality and radio manager Wendy Watson; actor and operations manager at Billyard Ins.; Kelsey Rutledge; actor and executive director of Sudbury Workers Education Advocacy Scott Florence; and YES Theatre students Shavi Dhatt, Emilia Anselmo, Kayden Hodgins and Jessica Abbott. MPP Jamie West plays Scrooge's nephew James North-West.
Music is provided by Tony Simpkin on the keyboard with Foley Sound Effects by CKLU radio hosts Stan Koren and Clay Campbell.
Tickets are $25 and available online at CKLU.ca and in person at A&J Home Hardware on Bouchard Street and Jett Landry Music on Lasalle Blvd.
The Rotary Club of Sudbury invites audience members to donate to Sudbury Food Bank in the lobby at the event.