Latest Play Script

by Paul Thain from Leo Tolstoy

Published by Samuel French Ltd

Large Mixed Cast

Papa Panov is an old shoemaker, now almost too blind to thread a needle

On Christmas Eve he has a dream that Jesus will visit him on Christmas Day

Eager and anxious, he waits all day

But his only visitors are a tramp, a roadsweeper, and a pauper woman with her cold and hungry baby

Despite his disappointment and fading hope, Papa Panov gives them his coat, his money, his soup

And even the tiny shoes he was saving as a present for Baby Jesus

Night falls and his special visitor still hasn’t arrived

Papa Panov thinks himself a silly, old fool

But then he has another dream …

A dream which convinces him his special visitor did come after all

Adapted from a short story by Leo Tolstoy, Papa Panov’s Magic Christmas makes a perfect play for Christmas

It can involve any number of children and it runs about 25 minutes