UNHOLY TRINITY: Two Christmas Eves after Dickens’ famous tale, conspirators Fred (Chris Capitolo, left), Jeremiah Marley (James Cordingley, center), and Bob Cratchit (Ken Ammerman) consider what terrors the night may hold in ActorsNET’s “The Christmas Carol Conspiracy: Scrooge’s Revenge,” which runs December 6-22 at the Heritage Center Theatre, 635 North Delmorr Avenue, Morrisville, Pa. Show times are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets and more information, call (215) 295-3694 or email actorsnet@aol.com.

You may know the familiar tale of A Christmas Carol —three spirits visit miserly Ebenezer Scrooge and inspire him to change his ways — but what if it was all a hoax? A scam? A fraud?

That’s the premise behind ActorsNET’s staging December 6–22 of Joe Doyle’s comedic holiday farce, The Christmas Carol Conspiracy: Scrooge’s Revenge. In this version, a year after the familiar story, Scrooge learns his Nephew Fred and the Cratchits used actors and stage effects to trick him into becoming kind and generous. When word leaks out of the ruse, Scrooge finds himself the laughingstock of London and vows to get revenge.

Celebrating ActorsNET’s 24th season, Artistic Director Cheryl Doyle thought this was the time to dust off her husband’s absurd comic romp. The company produced it twice in Morrisville in 1996 and 2009 and enjoyed a successful run in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1997. The Village Voice promoted the show as a “Holiday Happening!”

“How can I describe this comedy?” Doyle said. “It is outrageously silly — full of delicious wordplay and bizarre goings-on, performed by an intrepid cast. First we faithfully recap Dickens’ original tale at breakneck speed in ten minutes and then proceed to render our version of what might really have happened.”

“Leading our cast are George Agalias as Scrooge, Chris Capitolo as Nephew Fred, Ken Ammerman and Kelly Allen as the Cratchits, Renée Root as Fred’s tipsy wife Brigitte, Jim Cordingley as Marley, and Rupert Hinton as Charles Dickens, who narrates this madcap caper” Doyle noted. “Adding to the merriment in supporting roles are, alphabetically, David Bohn, Brenda Clements, Marco Newton. Hans Peters, Chris Root, Joe Ryan, and Ellen Wisnosky. And we’re proud to introduce Jack Laderman — a veteran of our Summer Stars program — in his ActorsNET stage debut as Tiny Tim.”

“My playwright husband Joe will be onstage too — performing in drag for the first time since his comic turn in Ruthless: The Musical 19 years ago.”

The Christmas Carol Conspiracy: Scrooge’s Revenge performs weekends December 6–22 at The Heritage Center Theatre, 635 North Delmorr Avenue (Route 32), Morrisville, Pa., near the Calhoun Street Bridge. Tickets are $22 for adults, $18 for seniors (62+), WHYY members, students, and ActorsNET company members, and $10 for children age 12 and younger. There is mild suggestive language, so parental guidance is suggested.

For reservations or further information, call (215) 295-3694, visit www.actorsnetbucks.org, or email actorsnet@aol.com.