Ling Kelley

Review of The Great Dickens Christmas Fa...

Postcard-worthy scenery from Dickensian-Victorian ...

Postcard-worthy scenery from Dickensian-Victorian England, seasoned with festivities, viands, and shoppes from mid nineteenth century London, with live theater, dancing, performances, songs, and the ever jocular Happy Christmas spirit.

The adventure club where actors in period costumes, recount and boast of their (mis)adventures in the Wilds of Africa, the Great Asian continent, and the New World; the Fencing Academy, where onlookers on the nearby benches can watch gentlemen (and gentlewomen) at swordplay; the pubs and bars where period food, such as shepherd pies and mead are served; the heavy, metallic presses, where modern technology through the industrial revolution has made their debut and messages can still be printed and delivered by messengers; the candlemaker, where waxes are melded into shape; the haberdashery and millinery, where lost arts of the handicraftsman are still practiced; the tea shoppe during high tea, where extra tables must be made available, and handmade sandwiches and freshly baked biscuits and scones are still made to order.

All the sights and sounds of Dickensian London in their full glory, as perceived by Oliver Twist or Tiny Tim or Sydney Carton, with wonder, awe, and the hint of limitless possibility - just in time for Christmas.