Set in London on December 21-22, 1865 (“the darkest night of the year”), this witty, heartfelt play-with-songs deftly weaves together Dickensian storytelling with a playful theatricality, featuring nine “original Victorian carols” and a diverse cast portraying an array of colorful characters.
With its Victorian winter setting, MR. DICKENS’ HAT is perfect for holiday programming, though not a Christmas show per se. Rather, it seeks to evoke those qualities audiences of all backgrounds perennially seek out each December: a suspenseful, heartfelt story well told, balancing gravity with levity, sentiment with spectacle, and generating plenty of warmth during a cold season.
“This extraordinary comic drama plays out as Story Theatre, in which a company of actors set out to improvise the tale surrounding MR. DICKENS’ HAT...There are also some beautiful original carols, written by Hollinger, that help create that Victorian feeling...It’s a wonderfully inventive piece of theatre.”
—Chicago Theatre Review
“Hollinger’s play has wit and warmth. In a tip of the hat to the master, he populates it with classic Dickens characters: lonely, bereaved and impoverished folks who, despite their situation, remain hopeful, kind and loyal. Despite the hardships fate and society impose, they persevere and prevail.”
—Chicago Herald
“An immensely wise and witty new show to which Dickens himself might readily tip his hat...Very charming and very sophisticated...it very well could be a new holiday classic.”