Paul Borchert picked up a chain among the jumble of links piled on the floor.
He wrapped it around his neck before bending down for the next one. With that, he hobbled toward the centre of the banquet room at the Sea to Sky Hotel.
"What do you want with me?" asked a scared-looking man who was sprawled out on two chairs and huddled under a blanket.
"Much," Borchert replied in a commanding voice.
Paul Fletcher sat at a table at the side of the room, following the conversation in the folder laid out before him. As assistant director of the Between Shifts Theatre production of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Fletcher and the actors in the banquet hall have been through the script many times. The cast of 25 has been rehearing twice a week since early September.
"The singing stuff is pretty minimal in this," Fletcher said, as Jacob Marley (a.k.a Borchert) leaves the "stage" that's taped out on the floor. "It's mostly just carols."
The theatre group's production of Charles Dickens' famous Christmas tale has been adapted by Vancouver theatre producer Fiona Revill Summers. When most people think of A Christmas Carol, the 1951 film starring Alastair Sim, comes to mind, Fletcher said. But this version of the play is truer to the Victorian novel, Fletcher said.
"It is going to be very spooky," he said, noting that the stage will be aflutter with phantoms. "You never really think about A Christmas Carol as a ghost story, but it really is."
The production will be the biggest in Between Shifts Theatre's history. In the past, the amateur company has staged some of Squamish's smash hits like Garry Plotter and the Pantominer's Stone, Darth and Luke's Most Excellent Adventure and The Princess Bride.
Performances of A Christmas Carol will take place from Nov. 24 to 27 and Dec. 1 to 4 at the Brackendale Art Gallery. Tickets are available at Billie's Bouquet on Cleveland Avenue, the Portico Gallery on Pemberton Avenue and the Adventure Centre.
Tickets cost $15 for youth ages 18 and under, $20 for adults and $15 for seniors (65 years old and up) and students with ID cards. For more information visit www.betweenshiftstheatre.com or see A Christmas Carol Squamish on Facebook.
