About this time of year, it’s almost impossible to escape  “A Christmas Carol,” and, as with something that has been performed several billion times, Charles Dicken’s ghostly holiday story crops up in all variations, including the Disney cartoon with Scrooge McDuck and Mickey Mouse.

We once saw an elaborate, spectacular version in Boston but all I remember of it is that Marley’s ghost was a purple fluorescent giant who roared and clanked so horribly, my son, who was 5 at the time, dove under his seat and I spent the rest of the show trying to persuade him to come back up for air. Another memorable version was the time Napa’s Dreamweavers Theatre used the set of their previous production, “Bus Stop” for their completely peculiar edition, which had Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future turning up in a diner somewhere near Kansas City.

This year, however, Dreamweavers has come up with a truly novel idea: They are reading the original story.

In addition to directing the work, Louise Anderson adapted it to add an introduction. Whether or not her premise is true — that few people have actually read the story on which all these variations are based — the idea of reading Dickens is so refreshing in its simplicity, and so engaging in its production, it’s very nearly brilliant.

The show is staged in the theater’s black box, making it all the more intimate for a show that’s set in the Victorian-era home of William (Victor Davis) and Olivia (Joanna Bourne), who are preparing for a Christmas party. The hostess is nervous. Her “whimsical” husband is given to devising entertainment and among her guests is the redoubtable Flora Jellyby (Ann Fink) — one gathers it’s the equivalent of having Miss Manners on the guest list.

Indeed, William does have a plan, and when the guests have assembled, he unfolds it. He has copies of “A Christmas Carol,” Dicken’s “Ghostly little book to raise the Ghost of an idea;” he has assigned parts, and while they wait for dinner to be served, they’ll all read it.

His idea is met with skepticism and no small rebellion from Nathan (Joe Lewis) who has been cast as Scrooge, but they proceed gamely, with William reading the narrator’s parts, and Olivia and various guests supplying the dialogue. While this opening is a little longer than it needs to be, as soon as they begin reading the story, the production hits its stride.

Davis is a marvel in his part as narrator — an old-fashioned, engaging storyteller who manages to create images with words and occasional gestures. Bourne’s uneasy Olivia gains confidence as she realizes her husband gave her several plumb parts. Lewis is Scrooge; no more need be said. Rose Marie Sweeney is wonderful, as always, as the Victorian lady who promptly begins living her various roles. Kevin Barney, Stewart Evan Smith, Samuel Bartos and Matthew Gracy read a variety of characters with spirit and flair. Jeanne Maxwell is picture perfect as if she had stepped out of a portrait, an indomitable Victorian lady all in black; and Ann Fink shows a comic turn when her prim character ends up sitting on the floor — in all her Victorian ruffles — reading the part of one of the ghoulish treasure seekers who rob Scrooge in the ghost of Christmas future’s grim vision. Director Anderson makes a cameo appearance in the part of Jocelyn the maid.

This may not be the “Christmas Carol” for younger audiences — but then no one’s son will hide under a chair either. It requires an almost vanished ability to listen and imagine, with few props beyond the Victorian costumes and a Yultide-decorated living room. But it’s fun and it’s an escape from so much that is over-produced and overdone in modern holidays. For this we can only say of Dreamweavers, “God bless them, every one.”

“A Christmas Carol” will be performed Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the theater in River Park Shopping Center on Imola Avenue. Tickets are $18-$20. Reservations are recommended. Call 255-LIVE or visit www.dreamweaverstheatre.org.