Drunk Christmas Carol

Drunk Christmas Carol is a holiday comedy at The Sage Theater in Washington, D.C., that reworks Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol around a performer who has been drinking whiskey on stage. The show is performed in English.

The production follows Scrooge through the ghostly visits of Dickens's story, but the telling is irreverent. Before stepping into the role, the actor takes a number of whiskey shots, so the familiar warnings from the spirits give way to tipsy revelations and barroom bravado. The humor rests on sharp timing, holiday chaos and spirited surprises, and the evening is built around the question of whether this miser reforms or is thoroughly scrooged.

The show is staged at The Sage Theater, a venue in Washington, D.C. that hosts concerts and shows. Its tone is loose and comic rather than solemn, with the ghosts closing in on Scrooge while the single performer keeps the story moving at an unsteady pace. Nothing about the production is presented as a faithful or reverent staging of the novella.

It suits audiences who enjoy irreverent reworkings of a holiday classic and prefer seasonal comedy with a sharp, rowdy streak to a traditional retelling of A Christmas Carol.