Imagine that you’re a teenager in school who’s been assigned to read “Oliver Twist,” one of many revered novels by the great English writer Charles Dickens. But here’s the, er, twist: Charles Dickens isn’t just some remote 19th century figure—he’s actually your great-great-grandfather.
That was the situation that Gerald Dickens found himself in many years ago when he had to read “Oliver Twist” for a class. “I hated it,” he says emphatically. “I never finished it. I ended up quoting the lyrics from the musical [“Oliver”] in my exam paper because I didn’t know how the book finished.”
Despite that undistinguished chapter in his academic career, things turned out just fine for Gerald Dickens, an actor, director and producer who recently visited Maine to perform in his one-man stage show based on “A Christmas Carol,” the classic story that just happened to be written by his great-great-grandfather. The material is so compelling that there’s no pressure on him when he takes the stage. As a result, he gets to have fun. “It’s not a question of my striving to keep this story alive,” he says with a laugh. “It’s going to do quite well whether I do this or not.”