A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, is brought to the Canberra Theatre by Shake and Stir

Since Charles Dickens' novella, A Christmas Carol, was released in 1843 - just days before Christmas - it has become an integral part of our festive season.

The story of Ebenezer Scrooge and the Christmas Eve that saw visits from the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future has come to life in countless films and even more theatre productions. So much so, it's almost hard to believe that at 179 years old, this story is still capturing hearts across the world. That is, until you experience - either in text form or performance - it one more time and remember just how good the story is.

Shake and Stir Theatre's production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is a stellar example. Since it first took to the stage in the company's hometown of Brisbane five years ago, it's been a sellout every festive season, picking up a slew of five-star reviews along the way. And this year it's heading to the Canberra Theatre, where it hopes to do the same.

It seems even though A Christmas Carol has been adapted so many times that even The Muppets, Mickey Mouse and The Flintstones have their own versions, people can't get enough of it. And everyone has a favourite.

As for Lucas Stibbard - who has played Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's underpaid clerk, since the beginning of Shake and Stir's production - it's a joy to be following in the footsteps of Kermit the Frog (who played the character in 1992's The Muppet Christmas Carol).

"Bob is a bit of an everyman. He's a guy plodding along, who's finding the joy in his life, not necessarily in being rich or retaining things or in his work, but in his family and the people around him and wanting to spend that time with them," Stibbard says.

For the actor, the role and A Christmas Carol, as a whole, is like stepping into a pair of comfortable shoes every year. It feels familiar, and while he and the rest of the cast spend their rehearsal time reacquainting themselves with the classic story, finding new meaning in some of the lines and adapting to the updates from the previous year's production, the production has become part of his own yearly traditions. Which is really an evolution of his tradition of watching other iterations of the story every year (something countless others share).

There is a reason, after all, that Charles Dickens has been credited as the man who invented Christmas (or at least, how the holiday stands today). And while that's not completely true - for example, A Visit from St. Nicholas (aka T'was the Night Before Christmas) by Clement Clarke Moore was written in the United States 20 years prior - it is true that at the beginning of the 19th century, Christmas was hardly celebrated in England. Many businesses didn't even see Christmas as a proper holiday. When given that context, Scrooge's aim to keep his business open come December 25 makes more sense to a 21st-century audience.

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But A Christmas Carol is an example of how the Victorian literati were reflecting this uptake of festive traditions. And a successful one at that. The book was published on December 17, 1843. By Christmas Eve it had sold more than 5000 copies and its publishers were already planning its first of many reprints. It hasn't been out of print since.

This popularity - while it did not result in a financial success for Dickens - was a reflection of some of the new Christmas trends at the time, and for that, some credit it as helping to cement them. These include having turkey as part of Christmas feasts - previously beef and goose were the preferred option - and the overall charitable theme on which the book is based.

A favourite anecdote for some Dickens biographers was upon the news of Dickens' death in 1870, a little girl was overhead by English critic Theodore Watts-Dunton to have said "Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?"

And whether or not this critic was recording fact or simply bending the truth, A Christmas Carol, and the author's subsequent festive tales, have seen him go on to become synonymous with the holiday season.

But for Dickens, it was more than just spreading some good cheer.

"Charles Dickens was inspired after seeing ... a child doing child labour to actually talk about the inequities and inequalities of the world," Stibbard says.

"He wanted to address how that particular time of year and the things around it could actually be a wonderful opportunity for the redemptive power of looking after everyone.

"And so we follow the story of a man named Ebenezer Scrooge [played by Eugene Gilfedder] who has turned his back on the good things in life - family, friends, community - in return for becoming a moneylender who basically is quietly living out his days, grumpily avoiding Christmas and being mean to everybody, until he's visited by the ghost of his ex-partner, who challenges him to change his life within the next 24 to 48 hours after he's visited by three spirits, who will show him what's going on.

"By the end of it, we're left with a beautiful and wonderful, slightly scary, grand-scale story that tells us that it's never too late. And there's always a vibrant and timely kind of experience around something that can be funny and sad and difficult, but it's about trying to reach out to other people and be part of a community of care."

But the question remains: how do you bring to life a story that hinges on the impact of ghosts, while still making it look like ghosts? They're key to this "slightly scary" story, after all.

The show's special effects - particularly the sort that bring to life ethereal beings - have been likened to Harry Potter, and while Stibbard and the rest of the Shake and Stir team behind A Christmas Carol are keeping tight-lipped about the on-stage magic, the production's trailer does show a sneak peek at the cinematic effects.

"There's definitely an immersive kind of feeling to the show in that we want you to feel cold and a little bit spooked," Stibbard says.

"The production itself is a beautiful big machine full of movement [and] big set pieces.

"And I think it's better if you aren't aware of how those things are happening. You could spend the entire show ... [looking] for the tricks and how they're done, but I think there is more fun to be had in the wonder of them. Don't pick up and shake the present. Just wait for it.

"But our ghosts are delivered by one of the finest actors in the country, a man by the name of Bryan Probets, who actually delivers all the ghosts, all the spirits, in different forms. I'm not going to avoid the tricks, because I think that's part of the fun, but you'll see him in various modes appearing and disappearing throughout the show."

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol will be at the Canberra Theatre Centre from December 20 to 24. Tickets from canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

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