DICKENS IN AN IRISH PUB

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The New England premiere of An Irish Carol by playwright Matthew Keenan offers a fresh take on Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, a familiar and much-performed holiday classic that holds out, again and again, a secular interpretation of the renewal potential of the Christmas season. Keenan’s version has been something of a classic in its own right, having been performed in Washington, D.C.’s Keegan Theatre for the past fifteen years.

The Cast

Brought to New England under the direction of Weylin Symes, this production has much to recommend it. Set in an Irish pub on Christmas Eve, it features excellent performances by Robert Walsh, Richard Snee, Ross MacDonald, and Alex Deroo. Walsh plays David, the owner of a pub that was once a busy watering hole. Despite the great location and the cozy atmosphere (scenic designer Saskia Martinez), the clientele has dwindled because David has become stingy and mean-spirited. Snee and MacDonald, as Frank and Jim, two of the pub’s stalwarts, continue to show up, likely because they’ve been around long enough not to be intimidated by their old friend, despite his negative outlook and rudeness. Frank and Jim aren’t afraid to needle David nor any of the others who drop into the pub in the course of the play, despite the storm raging outside—visible and audible every time someone opens the door (Mackenzie Adamick, sound design). Julia Hertzberg, Alex M. Jacobs, Alex Leondedis, and Paul Valley also perform very well in their much smaller roles.

Snee and MacDonald’s comic timing and facial expressions are spot on throughout, and it is a pleasure to hear their banter and their off-color jokes. Alex Deroo, as the patient Polish bartender Bartek, puts up with his employer David’s rudeness and lack of empathy. As an immigrant with a family to support, he needs to hang on to his job, yet Deroo doesn’t make Bartek into a patsy. He clearly understands what’s going on and has made a conscious decision to go along with his boss’s unreasonable demands—including his insistence that he work all day on Christmas Day.

Richard Snee, Alex Deroo, Ross MacDonald

Knowing that this is a reinterpretation of Dickens adds to the intrigue. David is obviously a Scrooge-like figure. Yet the pub setting, with its comings and goings, isn’t conducive to the arrival of any ghosts or (non-alcoholic) spirits of the past, present, or future.

One of the strengths of this play is Keenan’s ability to transfer the Dickens story to a completely believable set of interactions by human beings who force David to confront his own regrets and shortcomings. It’s a strong story up until the final minutes of the production. After an incredibly moving, wordless portrayal by Robert Walsh of a man finally coming to terms with his past, the stage goes dark. The confused audience begins its applause, only to have the lights come up again, not for the cast to take its bows, but for an entirely new and completely unconvincing final scene.

Robert Walsh

I’m willing to tolerate that flawed final scene for the pleasure of the rest of the show, but it’s a shame that it couldn’t have been revised in some way. All in all, this is a refreshing take on a holiday classic that offers over an hour and a half of holiday cheer through impressive performances, comic dialogue, and a gorgeous set.

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photos by Nile Scott Studio

An Irish Carol
Greater Boston Stage Company
395 Main Street in Stoneham, MA
1 hour, 45 minutes with intermission
ends on December 21, 2025
for tickets ($25-69), call 781-279-2200 or visit GBSC

for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston

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Lynne Weiss is a member of the Boston Theater Critics Association. Her work has also appeared in Literary Ladies Guide and in The Common, Black Warrior Review, and the Ploughshares Blog. She has an MFA from UMass Amherst and has received residencies from Yaddo, the Millay Colony, and Vermont Studio Center and grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. A lifelong social justice activist, she is at work on a novel set in 1930s Cornwall. Her reviews, travel tales, and progressively optimistic opinions are on her substack.