an Activist Adaptation
Based on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Adapted for the Stage by Michael Gene Sullivan
“A welcome addition to the A Christmas Carol’s adaptations.”
“Wonderfully acted and directed experience.”
“Mike McShane’s Ebeneezer Scrooge is evil incarnate – all that’s wrong with heartless capitalism.”
“A fierce critic of poverty and social stratifications, (Dickens’) views are at the forefront
of A Christmas Carol and perfectly aligned with ... the Mime Troupe’s mission.”
"It all works. It always works. The reason is Michael Gene Sullivan, who wrote and directed this production. The shows are so damned smart. They know exactly what they’re doing and nobody does it better."
"We love the Mime Troupe. Merry Red Christmas to all and to all a good night."
★ ★ ★ BANG
Six people,
telling the story,
playing all the roles,
in an abandoned industrial space.
This isn't your average, feel-good Christmas tale.
But it was never supposed to be.
We all know the story: The redemption of a cranky miser at Christmas, a ghost story designed to let an audience feel good about themselves for not being heartless.
But Charles Dickens wasn't trying to make people feel good, he was trying to show them a stark reality, scaring them into being more human. He wrote A Christmas Carol to shake up society, and with A Red Carol we are re-establishing his story as the revolutionary call-to-action he intended.
With music, joy, and plenty of harsh truths about his time and ours, A Red Carol is the demand for economic and social justice Dickens wanted then, and we need now.
"People always think this story is about you,” Bob Cratchit tells Scrooge.
“But it ain’t about you, it’s about us - and how we let ourselves get infected with your ideas, your greed, your lies, its you steppin’ over the hungry and homeless and us following your lead, it’s us lettin’ you turn our government into a casino, listenin’ while you say day after day that profit is the new god, and us not standin’ up and shouting "NO!"'
“It ain’t about you," Cratchit says. "It’s about us.”
~
"Playwright/director Michael Gene Sullivan explores Dickens' timeless Christmas parable of secular redemption as a radical essay in the novelist's lifelong campaign for social reform, with excellent tuneful support from musical director Daniel Savio's three-piece band (plus Velina Brown). An edifying and very engaging take on a Yuletide classic.”
- Robert Hurwitt
Playwright's Note
I feel it’s important to reclaim Dickens’ A Christmas Carol from the corporatists, and present it as the progressive, activist tale he intended. Especially now - as those at the economic top push for our society to increasingly devolve into an anti-worker, elitist, 18th century rich/poor structure - we must remind ourselves that his great story wasn’t created to be a feel-good tale of one greedy man redeemed. It was about a philosophy of economic oppression that Scrooge represented, and how society itself had to be changed. It wasn’t about him - it was, and is, about us.
The first reading of A Red Carol was at Occupy Wall Street/Oakland on Christmas Eve, 2010, and it has taken all these years for the Mime Troupe to raise the money and find the right partner in Z Space for us to produce it - and unfortunately the issues of almost 25 years ago have only deepened. The goal of this production is to show us, again, the humanity we share, our commonality as workers, and how - if we work together - we can change the world - just like Dickens intended.
— MICHAEL GENE SULLIVAN
Creative Team
Michael Gene Sullivan
MICHAEL GENE SULLIVAN
Michael is an Actor/Writer/Director/Activist based in San Francisco. He is an alum of the Playwrights Foundation, and has been awarded both a Djerassi Arts Center Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship as a dramatist. Michael is also Resident Playwright for the Tony and OBIE award-winning (and always revolutionary, never ever silent) San Francisco Mime Troupe, where he has written or co-written over 30 plays, including 1600 Transylvania Avenue, Too Big To Fail, Freedomland, Making a Killing, Back To The Way Thing Were, the Tales of the Resistance radio/podcast series. This past season, in addition to writing SFMT’s summer hit American Dreams, his play Sign My Name To Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin opened to critical-acclaim at the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company, and his stage adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 - already translated into six languages and performed in fourteen countries on five continents - was produced by The Aurora Theatre. Michael’s other plays include The Great Khan, which premiered at San Francisco Playhouse, San Diego Rep. and Chicago’s Red Twist Theatre. Michael has taught playwriting at the American Conservatory Theatre, SFMT’s Young California Writers Project, has guest lectured on play creation or taught playwriting workshops at Yale, Stanford, Dartmouth, and USC. For ten years Michael was also a Contributing Writer for The Huffington Post. Michael’s directing credits include work with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Marin Shakespeare Company, the African American Shakespeare Company, Mystic Bison Theatre, TheatreFirst, and a dozen productions with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. As an actor Michael has performed at theaters throughout the Bay Area (including at all four of the Bay Area’s Tony-winning theaters), has toured nationally and internationally - including off-Broadway and at the Kennedy Center.
Daniel Savio
DANIEL SAVIO
Daniel started his professional theater career playing keyboards for the Mime Troupe in 2006, and since 2020 he has been the Troupe's resident composer/lyricist. This year Daniel led the band, was co-arranger, and composed additional music for SFBATCO's original musical Sign My Name To Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin. He was recently musical director for the Marin Mountain Play production of Kinky Boots. Daniel has been MD of numerous community and children's productions at theaters in the North and East Bay. He has a BA in music from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Song Credits
"THE RED CAROL" (THE INTERNATIONALE)
LYRICS BY DANIEL SAVIO, MUSIC BY PIERRE DE GEYTER
"MARINER'S HYMN"
LYRICS AND MUSIC BY ANONYMOUS
"DUMP THE BOSSES OFF YOUR BACK (WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS)"
LYRICS BY JOHN BRILL, MUSIC BY CHARLES CROZAT CONVERSE
OH CHRISTMAS TREE (OH TANNENBAUM)
LYRICS AND MUSIC BY ANONYMOUS
"I WANDER UP AND DOWN THE STREET (LOVE ME AND THE WORLD IS MINE)"
LYRICS BY AUGUST WALQUIST, MUSIC BY ERNEST R. BALL
"THERE IS POWER IN A UNION"
LYRICS BY JOE HILL, MUSIC BY LEWIS E. JONES
"AWAKE, MY SOUL, TO JOYFUL LAYS (AWAKE, ARISE AND HAIL THE MORN)"
LYRICS BY ANONYMOUS, MUSIC BY MACK WILBERG
"WE WILL SING ONE SONG (MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME)"
LYRICS BY JOE HILL, MUSIC BY STEPHEN FOSTER
"THE BANKS ARE MADE OF MARBLE"
LYRICS AND MUSIC BY LES RICE, ADDITIONAL LYRICS BY DANIEL SAVIO
"DUMP THE BOSSES OFF YOUR BACK REPRISE"
LYRICS BY JOHN BRILL, MUSIC BY CHARLES CROZAT CONVERSE
"A RED CAROL FINALE"
COMPANY
LYRICS BY DANIEL SAVIO, MUSIC BY PIERRE DE GEYTER
Song Lyrics
"The Red Carol", Lyrics by Daniel Savio
WE WISH YOU ALL A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPINESS THIS COMING YEAR! GOOD TIDINGS WARM YOU ALL THE WINTER AND KEEP YOU IN GOOD CHEER! NO MORE SHALL DARKNESS WEIGH UPON US, NO MORE THE COLD SHALL CHILL OUR BONES. THE JOY OF OLD AND NEW TRADITIONS REMINDS US WE ARE NOT ALONE! HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR, A YEAR FOR US TO SEIZE OUR RIGHTS! ARISE AND HAVE NO FEAR! HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR, A YEAR FOR US TO SEIZE OUR RIGHTS! ARISE AND HAVE NO FEAR!
"Mariner's Hymn", Lyrics by Anonymous
HAIL YOU, AND WHERE DO YA COME FROM? HALLELUJAH! HAIL YOU, AND WHERE DO YA COME FROM? HALLELUJAH! OH, I’M COME FROM THE LAND OF EGYPT HALLELUJAH! OH, I’M COME FROM THE LAND OF EGYPT HALLELUJAH! HAIL YOU, AND WHERE ARE YA BOUND FOR? HALLELUJAH! HAIL YOU, AND WHERE ARE YA BOUND FOR? HALLELUJAH! OH, I’M BOUND FOR THE LAND OF GLORY HALLELUJAH! OH, I’M BOUND FOR THE LAND OF GLORY HALLELUJAH!
"Dump the Bosses Off Your Back", Lyrics by John Brill
ARE YOU COLD, FORLORN AND HUNGRY? ARE YOU LIVING IN A SHACK? IS YOUR LIFE MADE UP OF MIS'RY? THEN DUMP THE BOSSES OFF YOUR BACK! ALL THE AGONIES YOU SUFFER YOU CAN END WITH ONE GOOD WHACK! STIFFEN UP AND JUST GET TOUGHER, THEN DUMP THE BOSSES OFF YOUR BACK!
"I Wander Up and Down the Street", Lyrics by August Walquist
I WANDER UP AND DOWN THE STREET, 'TIL I HAVE BLISTERS ON MY FEET. MY BELLY'S EMPTY, I'VE NO BED, NO PLACE TO REST MY WEARY HEAD. THERE ARE MILLIONS LIKE ME WAND'RING, WHO ARE DEEPLY POND'RING, OH, WHAT MUST WE DO TO LIVE? SHALL THE WORKERS FACE STARVATION, MIS'RY AND PRIVATION, IN A LAND SO RICH AND FAIR? UNITE, MY COMRADES, YES, UNITE! TAKE BACK YOUR FREEDOM AND YOUR RIGHT! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE NOW, WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!
"There is Power in a Union", Lyrics by Joe Hill
THERE IS POW'R, THERE IS POW'R IN A BAND OF WORKING FOLK, WHEN THEY STAND, HAND IN HAND! THAT'S A POW'R, THAT'S A POW'R THAT MUST RULE IN EV'RY LAND, ONE INDUSTRIAL UNION GRAND! COME ALL YE WORKERS, FROM EVERY LAND, COME JOIN IN THE GRAND INDUSTRIAL BAND, THEN WE OUR SHARE OF THIS EARTH SHALL DEMAND, LET’S UNITE AND TOGETHER TAKE A STAND! THERE IS POW'R, THERE IS POW'R IN A BAND OF WORKING FOLK, WHEN THEY STAND, HAND IN HAND! THAT'S A POW'R, THAT'S A POW'R THAT MUST RULE IN EV'RY LAND, ONE INDUSTRIAL UNION GRAND! WOULD YOU DREAM OF MANSIONS OF GOLD IN THE SKY, WHILE LIVING IN A SHACK, WAY IN THE BACK? WHY DREAM OF WINGS UP IN HEAVEN TO FLY, WHILE STARVING HERE WITH RAGS ON YOUR BACK? THERE IS POW'R, THERE IS POW'R IN A BAND OF WORKING FOLK, WHEN THEY STAND, HAND IN HAND! THAT'S A POW'R, THAT'S A POW'R THAT MUST RULE IN EV'RY LAND, ONE INDUSTRIAL UNION GRAND! ONE INDUSTRIAL UNION GRAND!
"Awake, My Soul, to Joyful Lays", Lyrics by Anonymous
SEE HOW THE ANGELS WING THEIR WAY HALLE - HALLELUJAH TO USHER IN THE GLORIOUS DAY HALLE - HALLELUJAH LET PEACE AND LOVE ON EARTH ABOUND HALLE - HALLELUJAH WHILE TIME REVOLVES AND YEARS ROLL ROUND HALLE - HALLELUJAH! SO TIME REVOLVES AND YEARS ROLL ROUND HALLE - HALLELUJAH!
"We Will Sing One Song", Lyrics by Joe Hill
WE WILL SING ONE SONG OF THE MEEK AND HUMBLE SLAVE, THE HARD-HANDED SON OF THE SOIL, HE'S TOILING HARD FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE, BUT HIS MASTER REAPS THE PROFIT FROM HIS TOIL. ORGANIZE! OH, WORKERS! COME ORGANIZE YOUR MIGHT, THEN WE'LL SING ONE SONG OF THE WORKERS STANDING STRONG, WITH DIGNITY AND LOVE, WHAT A SIGHT!
"The Banks Are Made of Marble", Lyrics by Les Rice,
Additional Lyrics by Daniel Savio
I'VE TRAVELED ROUND THIS COUNTRY FROM SHORE TO SHINING SHORE, AND IT REALLY MADE ME WONDER THE THINGS I HEARD AND SAW. I HEARD THE LONGHAUL TRUCKER, SCRIMPED AND SAVED TO BUY HIS TRUCK. I HEARD HE COULDN'T MAKE THE PAYMENTS, HE'S OUT OF WORK AND OUT OF LUCK. BUT THE BANKS ARE MADE OF MARBLE, WITH A GUARD AT EVERY DOOR, AND THE VAULTS ARE STUFFED WITH SILVER, THAT THE TRUCKER LABORED FOR. I SAW THE TEACHER PAYING, OUT OF POCKET FOR SUPPLIES, I SAW THE WEARY WAITRESS, WITH HUNGER IN HER EYES. BUT THE BANKS ARE MADE OF MARBLE, WITH A GUARD AT EVERY DOOR, AND THE VAULTS ARE STUFFED WITH SILVER, THAT THE TEACHER AND THE WAITRESS LABORED FOR. BROTHERS AND SISTERS WORKING THROUGHOUT THIS MIGHTY LAND, I PRAYED WE'D GET TOGETHER, AND TOGETHER MAKE A STAND. THEN WE'D OWN THOSE BANKS OF MARBLE, WITH A GUARD AT EVERY DOOR, AND WE'D SHARE THOSE VAULTS OF SILVER, THAT WE ALL HAVE LABORED FOR! YES, WE'D OWN THOSE BANKS OF MARBLE, WITH A GUARD AT EVERY DOOR, AND WE'D SHARE THOSE VAULTS OF SILVER, THAT WE ALL HAVE LABORED FOR!