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An Extra Helping Of 'Bah, Humbug!' In 'Scrooge Variations'

Just in time for the holiday season of theater-goers who can't get enough of Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol, the Monroe County Civic Theater brings Eric Pfeffinger's Scrooge Variations to the intimate Rose Firebay Theater in a production directed by Sheila and Prince Butler.

Dickens Meets Pop Culture, With Updates

The Scrooge Variations was developed at the Bloomington Playwrights Project and ran for three seasons; the last time it appeared was in 2002. It's a sort of Dickens-meets-pop-culture parody of A Christmas Carol, with many of the original figures of the play juxtaposed with some new characters.

Co-director Sheila Butler notes, "Each year, Eric made changes, variations on the variations. Since the Bloomington productions he's actually made more changes. When we proposed doing it, he was very supportive and in fact told us to go right ahead in updating some of the pop culture and local references."

Monroe County Civic Theater is always looking for and finding new talents. For the Scrooge Variations they'll be introducing local candy maker and creator of "Uncle Bob's Peanut Brittle," Robert Shull, to Bloomington audiences. Shull will be playing Scrooge. "I haven't acted since high school and college, but this is such a supportive and creative group to work with that it's been great."

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