Edmonton’s top singer-songwriters are teaming up to present "The Christmas Carol Project 2003," our burg’s funkiest Christmas tradition. Now in its eighth incarnation, this hip fusion of theatre and music is built around a series of character-based original contemporary songs (written and performed by the cast) that re-tell Charles Dickens’s oft-told chronicle of seasonal redemption.

"The songwriters involved in this project are all huge talents in their own rights and have long had my profoundest respect," says local thespian Kenneth Brown, a principal of TheatREpublic and the show’s narrator.

Brown says the first act of the evening is a singer-songwriter circle, while the second act re-tells A Christmas Carol. The cast includes Bill Bourne as Ebenezer Scrooge, Tom Roschkov as Bob Cratchit, Kevin Cook as Ghost of Marley, Terry Morrison as Ghost of Christmas Past, Al Brant as Ghost of Christmas Present, Dale Ladouceur as Ghost of Christmas Future, and Maria Dunn as Tiny Tim.

"I have never seen a project quite like this. It’s so wild an idea it had to succeed," says Brown, amazed not only at the show’s music, but its ability to respectfully adapt a 19th century text to 21st century music, presented through the eyes of Western Canadian songwriters.

Addressing the appeal of the source story, Brown says the tale’s theme of redemption is profoundly universal and that Bourne’s "songs are beautiful explorations of that" theme, with one of his three pieces dipping almost into gospel. "Bill understands that’s the point at which Scrooge begins to crack, that’s the core of the story: a man’s being broken down with kindness and with terror," continues Brown. "All the singers understand the voice of their character well and get the mythology of the story. Mind you, if Dickens was anything, he was the great character portraitist of all time, second only to Shakespeare."

A long-time fan of the original tale, Brown says Dickens’ story is not only a "signal moment" in our culture’s perception of Christmas; he says that he can’t imagine what Christmas would be without the tale. "I grew up in a house where not watching the 1951 Alastair Sim version would be unthinkable," he says.

"My job in this show is to deliver the Dickens, and what a job it is. It’s long been a personal tradition of mine to read aloud some Dickens every Christmas, and to get to do that to a wider public is real pleasure. I love the feeling I get, bouncing those rolling cadences off my palate. It’s a real delight."