“We are that man!”: A Review of A Christmas Carol by Shine Your Light Theater Productions
November 22, 2025
Last night, my family and I attended the opening performance of Shine Your Light Theater Productions’ inaugural show, A Christmas Carol, hosted at Haddon Heights Baptist Church in Haddon Heights, NJ. After many years in the theater world, directors Susan Dinkler and Molly Wagner founded Shine Your Light as an opportunity for students to use their God-given talents to glorify the ultimate Creator.
The story and the length of the show was kid-friendly and perfect for keeping our two nieces and nephew—all under eight years old—engaged. Even with the dialogue pulling directly from Charles Dickens’ original work, the kids were glued to every scene in understanding. During the scene changes, my niece would whisper to me, “I’m having so much fun!” This was our first time attending a show with them, so it was such a sweet and encouraging thing to hear.
While the protagonist of Ebenezer Scrooge was played by Ethan Wagner, directors Dinkler and Wagner made the creative decision to reinvent some of the characters into female roles in their script: Bob Cratchit became Betsy Cratchit (Jenna O’Brien), Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, became Felicity (Alexandra Conklin), and Mr. Fezziwig became Mrs. Fezziwig (Jenna Amadie). This shift was handled so smoothly that this show should be seriously considered by other creatives who find themselves with a female-focused cast.
Further, with a medium-sized cast, an audience member could think, “Will I be taken out of the story if I notice the actors taking on multiple roles?” I can assure any potential audience member that the casting and the scenes were handled so well that this was never a concern. Like our nieces and nephews, my disbelief was quickly suspended and I became immersed in the world of Scrooge.
The emotions in the breakup scene between young Scrooge (Shiloh Jenkin) and Belle (Alexandra Conklin) felt real, and I found myself getting choked up. The scene where the Ghost of Christmas Past (Jenna O’Brien) brings Scrooge to the scene of a grown Belle with her children (Elliott Geer and Adam Wagner) was a heartbreaking addition that the audience rarely gets to see in different adaptations of Dickens’ story. The audience pities Scrooge as he struggles with the view of what he could have had with his lost love and how she moved on without him.
Our nieces’ favorite part was Mrs. Fezziwig’s (Jenna Amadie) Christmas party. The choreography and actors’ mastery of the traditional dancing was fun to watch, and I know our nieces would have loved to join in if they could have. Scrooge’s eye rolling and continued disdain at being dragged into the dancing with the Ghost of Christmas Past was especially a fun little characteristic to catch.
As you would expect for a “rough and tough” young boy, our nephew’s favorite scene was the one where “they thought everyone died.” The penultimate graveyard scene with the Ghost of Christmas Future (Jenna Amadie) was haunting and harrowing. With the sound of the whistling wind deepening the ambiance, our nieces and nephew were literally on the edges of their seats, peeking over the pew. Throughout the play, the audience perceives how Scrooge’s heart is lightly tugged with conviction with each Ghost’s presentation; his face changes and he mentions now and then how he would have said something or treated someone differently in his initial scene at his business. While he is not willing to completely admit that he was wrong leading up to this moment, his remorse becomes fully apparent in the graveyard. As he beholds his own headstone, Scrooge exclaim with bitter anguish, “I am that man!”
Suddenly, the Holy Spirit harkened my mind back to the interaction between the prophet Nathan and King David, when David burned with anger against Nathan’s hypothetical rich man who showed no hospitality and chose to take his poor neighbor’s lamb to avoid having to sacrifice his own possessions to prepare a meal for a passing traveler. David says to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity” (2 Samuel 12:5b-6 NIV).
While the Ghost of Christmas Future remains voiceless to Scrooge’s questions, the prophet Nathan’s cutting rebuke to King David still rings out in God’s Word: “You are the man!”
Just as King David comes to recognize his sin in Nathan’s proclamation and the consequence of God taking away his beloved child, Scrooge realizes the depth of his depravity and witnesses the final result his own sins, grieving even more heavily over the humble grave of Tiny Tim.
Finally, his tears and cries as he falls to the ground weeping are broken by the comforting appearance of Tiny Tim (Adam Wagner) himself in the present day—Christmas Day.
The graveyard is gone. All signs of the past ghosts have disappeared.
Skipping over Scrooge’s usual waking scene places Scrooge and the audience right into the middle of his redemption. As the directors’ note, “Like Scrooge, we all have a heart of greed, bitterness, and anger and are in need of a savior. While it is true that the choices we make on this earth affect our eternity, we cannot save ourselves. There is only one Savior and His name is Jesus. He came to earth to sacrifice Himself in our place so we can have the gift of eternal life.” Scrooge’s redemption can be our own.
My heart was warmed by the inclusion of Scrooge’s renowned declaration: “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.” This sentiment and show are the perfect way to start this Christmas season. I hope we can all recognize that “We are that man!” in the grave without a Savior and understand the value of seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness all the year long.
To learn more about Shine Your Light Theater Productions and how to get involved or your students involved in the future, visit shineyourlightthea.wixsite.com or send them an email at shineyourlighttheater@gmail.com.
Review image: “The Last of the Spirits — The Pointing Finger", steel engraving, hand-colored, from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, facing p. 150, scanned by Philip V. Allingham.