A CHRISTMAS CAROL BY CANDLELIGHT is Coming to The 204 Theater In Harwich

Step into the glow of the holidays this year and listen. The Christmas story you know by heart is about to breathe, sing, and move all around you. CAPENESS's immersive retelling of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol at Harwich's 204 Theater opens December 4 and runs through December 20.

This new adaptation unfolds entirely by candlelight, where hundreds of flickering tapers, hand-held lanterns, and traveling torches illuminate Victorian London in glorious detail. Audiences are welcomed into a living storybook, where scenes flow from shadow to shimmer, and the tale's timeless themes-kindness, redemption, and community-rise in a united chorus of human voices.

This is A Christmas Carol told through movement and music as much as through words. The company's physical storytelling sweeps you from counting house to bedchamber to bustling street with fluid, dance-driven transitions that feel like pages turning. Ghosts appear as spectacle-emerging from the penumbra, circling Scrooge in choreographic patterns that suggest memory, loss, and limitless possibility. Every footfall, lifted candle, and shared breath becomes part of the story's living grammar.

Live caroling threads the evening together. Traditional English carols and shape-note harmonies fold into the scenes, sung a cappella-so close and warm the music seems to bloom from the room itself. From the soft hush of "Carol of the Bells" to the convivial ring of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" familiar melodies guide us through the night, drawing the audience and ensemble into a shared seasonal heartbeat. Between scenes, roving singers in lantern light invite gentle participation, reminding us that story and song are communal acts.

The production design marries authenticity and imagination. Beautifully rendered sets and props evoke narrow lanes, frosted panes, and firelit hearths with tactile detail-weathered woods, hand-finished textiles, and simple greens and ribbons placed with care-while sumptuous period costumes glow in the flickering light: shawls and greatcoats, lace caps and velvet waistcoats, all chosen to catch the warm flicker and sculpt the moving body. Without the glare of modern illumination, faces reveal new colors of feeling; silhouettes lengthen; a slowly lifted candle turns a moment into revelation.

At the center stands Ebenezer Scrooge, portrayed by Jay Stewart, remade before our eyes by the company's kinetic language-the stiff angles of his poverty of spirit slowly unspooling into generosity and grace. The Ghosts-Jacob Marley (Steph DeFerie), Past (Juliet Seeley), Present (Kate Martin), and Yet to Come (Karen McPherson)-are not distant apparitions but living reminders that every choice is choreographed with consequence. Tiny Tim's blessing lands not as sentiment, but as a clear, pure note carried on a child's breath.

Above all, A Christmas Carol by Candlelight is a celebration of community and holiday tradition. We gather in the colder, darker weeks to share light-literally-and to retell the story that belongs to us all. Families, neighbors, and first-time theatregoers find themselves shoulder to shoulder, watching through lantern light, humming along to carols they didn't know they remembered, and recognizing one another in Dickens's unparalleled parade of humanity. The evening feels at once old and brand new: handcrafted, heartfelt, and made fresh by the people in the room.

Come sit with us through a night lit by candles and possibility. Come sing the songs, witness the transformative miracle of a changed heart, and then carry the light back into the world. This season, make A Christmas Carol by Candlelight your family's tradition-a gift shared, a spirit renewed, a story retold exactly where it matters most: together.

Cast & Creative Team