Since the 1843 publication of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the iconic ghost story has been endlessly recited, adapted for the stage (and film), re-visited, musical-ized, parodied, re-imagined, updated, satirized, etc. Even the person least likely to ever utter “Bah, humbug” in earnest might be thinking that we’ve pretty much exhausted all the possibilities for “Carol” at this point.

But – God bless us every one – that’s apparently not the case, as evidenced by Performance Network Theatre’s world premiere adaptation, “Dickens: An A Capella Carol.”

In this version, with a brisk running time of just over an hour, a storyteller – whose identity remains under wraps until the start of each performance (and more than one actor will be featured during the course of the show’s run) – appears among two men (Derek Ridge and Nick Yocum) and two women (Julia Garlotte and Sonja Marquis) who are living on the streets. The storyteller picks up a book and starts to narrate Dickens’ tale, and the casual chorus around him provide sound effects, delivers lines, and sings beautifully rendered, harmonious carols.

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