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Show 'Dickens' to read on Salt Lake stage jp . ( 1 l"K ' Jj '' J A During the last years of his life, Charles Dickens made a fortune reading his works in public. The cry "Dickens is coming!" could be heard throughout England whenever news arrived that the creator of Scrooge and David Cop-perfield Cop-perfield was bringing his one-man show to town. The Victorian-era author will come to Salt Lake City this month in the person of professional actor Michael J. Bennett. For the last 14 years, Bennett has toured the country coun-try will? publicTeadihgs'of Dickens c greatest works. In keeping with the Yuletide season, he will present "An Evening with Dickens: A Christmas Carol" Dec. 9 through 23 in the Little Bowery at Promised Valley Playhouse, 132 S. State St. "Dickens was considered by the critics of his time to be one of the finest actors in England," Bennett said. "He would have been the Bruce Springsteen of his day. He loved the spotlight, and people mobbed him wherever he went." A veteran of dramatic readings, Bennett uses only his resonant voice and mannerisms to create the well- . loved characters of Ebenezer. Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit and j the ghosts of Christmas past, pre -sent and future. The audience must , ; use imagination to create images of ' set, costumes and characters on stage. r That, according to fans of the show, isn't hard to do. "At one point, I closed my eyes to visualize the scene. I can honestly say I was quite surprised to open my eyes and see only one man on stage reading rather than assorted characters I conjured up from Ben-' nett's reading," wrote an Ogden reviewer after a performance at Weber State College four years ago. , That's exactly what Bennett hopes is achieved with the 75-minute show. "I'm challenging people to return to the days before television when we sat in front of the radio and built pic- Michael Bennett will read from Dickens' works.. tures in our heads," he said. "I want the audience to be able to close their eyes and see a whole host of characters up there." ' n : Bennett, a veteran of 30 films and scores of plays and television com-! com-! mercials, said a love of language led him to revive public reading, a form of entertainment that long ago lost popularity. "I have long felt that our youngsters are so taken by the television set that they lose something very dear. They lose the opportunity to exercise their imagination," im-agination," he said. "So I have made it one of the purposes of my life to reintroduce re-introduce the art of reading and listening to reading." The show will run in the Little Bowery Dec. 9, 16 and 23 at 5 p.m., Dec. 10 and 17 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 14 and 21 at 4 p.m. Tickets are available at the box office, of-fice, 364-5677. |