‘A Christmas Carol’ @ Ventfort Hall
Performed by Charles Dickens' great-great-grandson!!!
We took a two-and-one-half-hour drive from Boston (on the coast) to Lenox (in the Berkshires) to attend a one-person performance of the Charles Dickens story, “A Christmas Carol.”
A performance that would make his Deuce-G proud.
Normally this would not be our choice for a day-long activity—a total of FIVE HOURS in the car to attend a ONE HOUR thing—but ONE of us was so excited about it being performed by Dickens’s great-great-grandson (British actor Gerald Charles Dickens) that we one of us decided overrode the rest of us that it would be worth the trek.
After attending/participating in the performance, we have to say that one of us was utterly and totally right. Both of us agreed that it was riveting and absolutely worth the effort to attend!
Ventfort Hall—JP Morgan’s sister Sarah’s “Summer House” (uh-huh)—was more than equal to the occasion. The elegant afternoon tea (finger sandwiches and miniature desserts in addition to the tea) after the performance was lovely and well-planned.
The Performance
This adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic Christmas tale was created by Gerald in 1993, and he brings it to life by his vocal and physical talents. And his stamina, because he portrays over 25 characters.
In. One. Hour.
And everything—every thing—that matters in the story is in this performance.
This show was inspired by Dickens’ own readings of the story when he toured the United States (including Boston and Worcester! Massachusetts got a two-fer!) during the 1860s.
You think maybe a little bit, at the beginning, that…there’s no way it’s going to be as good as some of us might be thinking it should be.
The beginning: “Marley was dead: to begin with.”
But then, when it ends, you are sort of stunned to realize that it’s been an hour and neither you nor anyone else has moved an iota of an inch, in any direction, in their seat.
And the end: “And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!”
Such an appreciative audience. So wonderful an performance. A perfect Christmas present to yourself and whomever you came with.
And in this particular venue, the twinning of Charles’s son’s son’s son’s son and the abundant, fabulous, holiday decorations were a perfect confluence of experience and surroundings. Spectacular, I would say.
A room, just beyond the Christmas tree, full of mesmerized, spell-bound people.
The Venue
Ventfort Hall, a gabled, crenelated Elizabethan Revival colossus mansion designed 1893 by architect Arthur Rotch and needing two years to build, was built for George and Sarah Morgan as their summer home.
The architect went on to run the M.I.T. architecture department, and built many of the still-standing mansions in Boston’s Back Bay and the Blue Hill Observatory so he wasn’t just some fly-by-night brick-layer.
A little bit foreboding on the outside; nothing but lovely on the in.
Paneled in rare Cuban mahogany (because of course ), Ventfort was the kind of opulent ”summer cottage” made possible a century ago by the utter absence of income taxes.
Ventfort Hall dressed in full Christmas regalia.
The house has 28 rooms (including 15 bedrooms), 13 bathrooms, and 17 fireplaces, not including the three-story great hall. The property was slated for demolition in the mid-1980s when it was sold to a sold to oh my gawd a nursing home developer.
It was subsequently sold to oh thank gawd Ventfort Hall Association (VHA) for restoration and preservation.
They came this close to losing this place forever. THIS CLOSE. (That’s close.)
The dining room at one point looked like this.
We had the opportunity to see a few of the rooms on the first floor, and from what we gawked at saw in our brief stroll, serious living was lived here. LARGE living. Oh, the hope of getting an invitation must’ve had some people in absolute knots.
Oh yes, we fit right in.
It’s hard to describe how, lovely, Ventfort is. Spacious, comfortable, luxurious; lots of money to good-quality use. And to think they almost tore it down.
Delightfully set up for tea—and we were all extremely well-behaved.
There is nothing here that is displeasing to the eye, nor indicative that a few decades ago it was practically a ruin.
Afternoon sun through the stained glass (which was everywhere).
The Tea
Tea in dining room of Venfort Hall was very authentic and robust—more than 50 audience members took advantage (in a genteel way, of course).
“Oo, I’ll have this, and I’ll have this, and oh, I’ll have that, too!”
We picked out our fancies as we saw fit. Some of us were more sandwich-y than dessert-y, and that was completely fine, because we were all elegant and genteel, regardless of the Winter boots with which many of us shod our feet.
I SO wanted to open the prezzies under the tree, but manners dictated that I not.
Even without the performance, a trip to the Berkshires to tour Ventfort is completely justified.
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