A High Country Christmas Carol Wins Admiration
Audiences are moved by Bob Inman’s adaptation of Dickens Classic

By Jeff Eason

Audiences coming out of the world premiere of Bob Inman’s new holiday play, A High Country Christmas Carol, are full of praise for a show that makes them think as it uplifts their spirits.

Silas McTavish is visited by a mysterious stranger in the new holiday stage show A High Country Christmas Carol.

The Blowing Rock Stage Company production of A High Country Christmas Carol runs from now until December 14 at the Hayes Performing Arts Center in Blowing Rock. Tickets are on sale now.

“Bob Inman has done it again,” said Sherrie Norris of All About Women magazine. “While his latest gift to the area, A High Country Christmas Carol, was adapted from a holiday classic written many years ago, his version brings it close to home for all of us in characters with whom we can easily identify.”

A High Country Christmas Carol takes Charles Dickens’ holiday classic A Christmas Carol and moves its setting to the mountains of North Carolina during the Great Depression. When a curmudgeonly general store owner named Silas McTavish is visited by a mysterious guest on Christmas Eve, he is forced to rethink the way he has treated the people in his life.

More than two years in the making, A High Country Christmas Carol is Inman’s fifth collaboration with the Blowing Rock Stage Company.

“I think A High Country Christmas Carol is especially appropriate in our current days of economic difficulty and uncertainty,” said Inman.

The new play is directed by BRSC producer Kenneth Kay and stars a colorful mix of professional actors and local thespians. The cast includes Gary L. Smith, Melvin Tunstall, Chris Wright, Kim Cozort, Melanie Bullard, Dean Lyons and Ed Pilkington.

“I was thrilled to be part of the audience on opening night, surrounded by numerous senior citizens from my church who remember life as it was in the High Country during the Great Depression,” said Norris. “Never a dull moment was had by audience or cast. We were all captivated by the likes of Gary Lee Smith in his role of Silas McTavish, a crotchety old skinflint whose only response to wishes of peace and goodwill—at least in the beginning—seemed to be a curt ‘bullfeathers!’

“With many similarities carried over from Dickens’ original tale, Inman’s adaptation breathes new life into a timeless classic. The characters, and cast members who more than adequately portray them, are meshed as one—local youngsters and seasoned actors playing roles with which so many audience members could closely identify.

“Hats off to Inman and the entire cast and crew of A High Country Christmas Carol.”

Tickets and Times

Performances of A High Country Christmas Carol are on Thursday, Dec. 11 at 7 p.m., Friday, Dec. 12 at 7 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 13 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday, Dec. 14 at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $18 for adults, $14 for students, and $10 for children ten and under. Tickets are available by calling the Hayes Center Box Office at (828) 295-9627, or may be purchased online at www.hayescenter.org. by credit card.