A Christmas Carol - Vienna

Last Thursday, I went to Vienna with the students to see a version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol at the International Theatre. By "International," they mean English-language theater.


And, yeah, it was interesting. Enjoyable. The students seemed to like it - and actually get the jokes, etc., which is a good sign! It's hard to gauge how much of their refusal to talk in class is confusion over the English language and how much is refusal to talk because they are either a) embarrassed/unsure of their abilities or b) buyers-in to the too-cool-for-school mentality. Hey, teenagers will be teenagers.


We were 70 or so, and completely filled the theater. Elfriede told me that there were ten students who were supposed to come, but cancelled. They had to bring chairs in for us in fact, so who knows where those extra students would have sat?


The performance itself was good - inasmuch as it was well acted and basically faithful to the story I know and love. My biggest problem was with Scrooge - the guy was about four feet tall, and emaciated with a shriveled face...if he had been two feet taller, I think he would have been perfect.

I mean, I'm not a sizeist or anything. But, well, the Scrooge I grew up with was the Alastair Sim version - released as Scrooge in the UK but known to me by its original title - and I still consider it the best version of A Christmas Carol. He was only 5'10" but looked taller. And, of course, there are the mythical performances of Basil Rathbone (6'1"), Albert Finney (5'9") and, of course, Michael Caine (6'2").



This is a tribute to the fabulous Muppet Christmas Carol, of which I could similarly rhapsodize. I mean, really, it merges the best of two worlds: Muppets and Michael Caine. Oh, and it also parodies holiday sentimentality, but in a family friendly, musical way that is imperceptible to anyone under 12. And most over 12, if we wish to be mean about it. But, really, no one can top Gonzo the Great as Mr. Charles Dickens. Especially not the narrator in the cramped English theater in Vienna.


Afterward, we went to the Christkindlmarkt near the Rathaus (city hall). And, like all Christmas markets, there was food, and Glühwein and little trinkets to buy, homemade soaps, crafts, hats and mittens...other things people normally give for Christmas. 


Now, I'm getting a little jaded with these things, because they've been up for a whole month now, and I've been to no fewer than a dozen Christmas markets all around Austria and Poland - there are several in Vienna alone. The one near the Rathaus is the largest.


Christmas is getting closer and closer. And I'm getting ready to go home. I'm wondering how reentry will feel. The last time I was in Europe, I stayed on the continent for an entire calendar year - not going home for Christmas (obviously) - but I think going home is necessary right now. The more I think about it, the better it sounds. Which, oddly enough, didn't happen when I was in Berlin. I was too excited (?) to go home. There is none of that this time, and I wonder whether this is because I am older (and, presumably, wiser) and I've done the whole "Europe" thing...or if it's a creeping, unconscious form of homesickness. Or if there are other factors at play. Unless I go to a psychotherapy session, perhaps we'll never know...