A Christmas Carol / SAN DIEGO REPERTORY THEATRE, SAN DIEGO

The San Diego Rep, in its quarter-century of existence, has spawned and nurtured a local tradition: an annual holiday version of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Some of the offerings have been conventional, others not. Some have succeeded, others not. This year’s, which improbably blends the classic tale with a circus theme, ranks as not only one of the best of the lineage, but also among the company’s top triumphs ever.

Credit adapter D.W. Jacobs, a Rep co-founder who through the years has done many of these regular revisions, and director-conceiver Joan Schirle, a founding member of Humboldt County’s Dell’Arte Players Company. They’ve packaged the disparate elements so seamlessly that anyone not familiar with the original (if such a person exists) might assume that Dickens wrote it this way.

Grouchy miser Ebenezer here runs the Scrooge and Marley Circus--his partner, of course, is “long dead”--and looks forward to Christmas only because it allows him to schedule three shows and rake in even more cash. Bookkeeper Bob Cratchit is one of the clowns, and the underpaid troupe includes giants and little people, sword-swallowers, tumblers, jugglers, twirlers, stilt-walkers and musicians. All get to display their talents as part of the background action, in the circus performances or in such scenes as the Cratchit Christmas dinner viewed by Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present.

The cast of 23, many recruited from the local Fern Street Circus troupe, provides recurring delights, with most handling multiple roles capably. On Giulio Cesare Perrone’s colorful and versatile big-top set--Scrooge’s office is a circus wagon--the story unfolds smoothly, with performance art and theatrical tricks enhancing or illustrating the narrative.

For a Scrooge trek through the neighborhood, Victorian homes descend from above. For wonderfully staged animal acts and ballets--choreographed by Schirle and Annetta Lucero--toy horses skitter behind scrims, and performers wear Perrone-designed costumes that include stuffed animals hanging from their shoulders.

Schirle deftly utilizes Ray Leslee’s music, Todd Reischman’s sound and Trevor Norton’s lighting to smooth the wide-ranging tonal changes, encompassing the frivolity of present celebration, the poignancy of Scrooge’s past and the ominousness of a massive, dark spirit of Christmas future. The single dissonant note in the script is a corpse-robbing scene, intended to demonstrate the desperation of poverty.

Mike Genovese, a fine Scrooge, doesn’t overdo the early nastiness, and the glimmer of a heart beneath his crust makes his transformation more credible, if less dramatic. In sync with the general physicality, Genovese personifies Scrooge’s return to his old caring, clowning self by putting on a red nose and impressively doing a back flip from a prone position.

That’s highly appropriate, since this is a production worthy of back flips.

* 79 Horton Plaza, San Diego. Tuesdays at 7 p.m., Wednesdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. Ends Dec. 24. $21-$38. (619) 544-1000. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.