Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, telling the story of how miserly Ebenezer Scrooge has his soul saved one Christmas Eve, is one of the best known of Christmas stories. Chicago Tribune writer Tom Mula gives the story a twist in his play Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol. which he wrote – first as a book, published in 1995, then as a play – after playing Scrooge in a stage adaptation of the original story and thinking that Marley had been given a raw deal: why was Scrooge the one seemingly given a second chance at saving his soul when his former business partner, who provided the means by which he gets it, apparently was not?

In this retelling of the story, Marley, who is deceased at the start of A Christmas Carol – "Marley was dead: to begin with" is how Dickens opens the tale – is the central character and this version focuses on how in bringing about the redemption of Scrooge's soul, he also saves his own.

Husband and wife Craig Alexander and Michelle Higgs are bringing Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol to Canberra for the second time – she is directing, he is acting – in a version of the show for one performer. Alexander narrates and plays more than a dozen characters in this "Show in a Suitcase" – bringing the story to life with the help of a suitcase (or two) full of everything necessary including lights, sound effects, props and costumes.

There is also a four-actor version which Alexander acted in "many, many years ago" but he says the solo script is a better written story and Higgs believes that for the audience, "It's interesting to see one person doing it, playing all the characters that the story finds."

In Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, Alexander says, "Jacob Marley goes to hell – to get out, he gets the opportunity to save his own soul."

Marley is told by the malicious little hell-sprite Bogle, who accompanies him and has his own agenda, to do that he must save the soul of his old business partner. SInce Scrooge was the one man Marley knew who was even worse than he was was in life, he fears it will be an impossible challenge. But the alternative – which some of the dead have resigned themselves to – is an eternity of torment, so he decides to give it a try.

Not only does Marley appear to Scrooge as himself, warning him of the dire consequences of continuing to lead a selfish life, but he also transforms himself into the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come who appear to Scrooge over the course of Christmas Eve and take the shaken miser through his heartbroken past, callous present and the dreadful future that may eventuate if he doesn't change his ways.

Accompanying Alexander on stage will be cellist Jordan Best, who is mostly known in Canberra as an actor and director.

Best says her scoring is a mix of Christmas carols, folk music, classical music and some improvising. She has used some French and Polish folk songs, the better to emphasise that this is not the same as A Christmas Carol, but is its own spin on the story.

"It's been quite a collaborative process," she says about working with Alexander.

"We're working together to create a more textured, fuller experience."