On Monday, December 12, 2022, the WPU course in English (year 10) went to the Academy of Arts to watch the play “A Christmas Carol”. We met at the ”Akademie der Künste’’ and then went into the hall together. We sat in the back rows of the hall, which gave us a good overview of the whole stage.
Shortly after we had taken our seats, the play began and Charles Dickens appeared on stage. In his Christmas story, Christmas is just around the corner. Many people are happy about it, but the main character, ‘Scrooge’, who is a business person, is not in the Christmas spirit. Because of his greed and selfishness, he lacks every trace of compassion, especially among poor people. The ghost, Jacob Marleys, shows him the greedy qualities he has accumulated during his life. The ghost of the future appearing in Charles Dickens’ Christmas story threatens him with death if he does not change. Finally, Scrooge is so shocked by his past behavior and other people’s opinions that he begs the spirits for forgiveness. Scrooge survives, and out of his zest for life, he talks to a boy to buy him a large turkey to hand it over to his coworker, Bob. He also raises Bob’s salary, causing his family to be overwhelmed with happiness. He wants to show his compassion for poor people to prove that he has changed.
After the play we took a photo together and said goodbye. In the next English WPU lesson we talked about our collected impressions during the play. We have all gathered many different impressions. Most were pleasantly surprised and found the play heartwarming, fascinating, amusing, and colorful. We also expressed constructive criticism, as individual sections of the piece were considered boring or confusing. However, we all agree that the play is thought-provoking and especially the British English provided some laughter. We would also like to thank Mrs. Schulz for taking the trouble to buy tickets at an early stage, thereby giving us the opportunity to see Charles Dickens’ Christmas story as a theatre performance. It is definitely worth a recommendation!
Written by Noah Just (Class 10.3)