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This year’s version of “A Christmas Carol” at Trinity Rep has been updated with a decidedly retro look, setting the tale in 1959 America.

Here, Scrooge (the excellent Brian McEleney) looks uncannily like one of TV’s “Mad Men” or “The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit.” This gimmick isn’t altogether humbug; it’s actually a lot of fun and allows for an extra dimension of immediacy for the audience. The production was as heartfelt and heartwarming as always. The only problem was it wasn’t nearly contemporary enough.

Though purists may quail, Charles Dickens did not, after all, devise a piece of quaint antique Victoriana. His 1843 “A Christmas Carol” was a contemporary tale meant for a contemporary time; the man whose written works enabled necessary social reforms was more interested in affecting the here and now than in creating a sense of nostalgia. His aim was to entertain but also to enlighten.

With that in mind, it seems Trinity Rep missed a golden opportunity to turn a very good production into a truly great one. There’s nothing inherently wrong with updating and invigorating a classic work of art; indeed, it’s a necessary part of theatrical alchemy. But the choice of 1959 by director Christopher Windom seems, at best, arbitrary and, at worst, merely fashionable.

There seems no good reason to set Scrooge at the edge of the new frontier other than to cash in on recent nostalgia for that time. Sure, it was a material age, but what age isn’t? More to the point, as that era was a time of prosperity, why not set the story in a time and place when things aren’t so good? And if the notion of, say, a Depression-era Scrooge seems too hackneyed, why not do exactly what Dickens did and set it in the here and now?

Admittedly these musings of mine were as much prompted by the street theater I saw before the show as by the show itself. My route to Trinity Rep took me through the Occupy Providence encampment in Burnside Park. Their message of social and economic inequality was not dissimilar from views espoused by that old radical Charles Dickens, though the form this message takes here is rough-hewn, immediate and decidedly unpolished.

It matters little what one’s opinion of these protesters are. We can readily imagine how Ebenezer Scrooge, literature’s original One Percenter, would react to them and the sort of bile he would spew at these hippie ragamuffins. One imagines as well that Trinity Rep founder Adrian Hall, who originally adapted “A Christmas Carol” and was no stranger to provocative stagecraft, would have known this is exactly where the action is, the guerilla theater of the streets as opposed to the slick glibness of a 1959 winter wonderland. If you’re going to modernize a classic, why stop halfway?

That off my chest, I must report that this year’s version of “A Christmas Carol” offers many delightful and satisfying wonders to behold. The little tweaks taken to update the details of the story are appropriate and a lot of fun. The gruel Scrooge partakes of before retiring is a TV dinner and the giant turkey delivered to the Cratchits bears a familiar brand name. Perhaps the most startling of all the evening’s special effects: When confronted with a Salvation Army collection bucket, Scrooge proceeds to use it as a spittoon! OK, that last little moment certainly brings the point home with a vivid immediacy!

The cast, as ever, is crackerjack and meets all great expectations. Brian McEleney is brilliant as Scrooge, year in and year out; each time he plays the role he finds new ways to make the character seem freshly imagined and absolutely definitive. Every aspect of his demeanor is wholly authentic; his very face seems as clenched as his arrested emotional state at the outset, but radiates with a sense of longing and loss as he beholds a vision of his lost sister Belle. Mr. McEleney tops off Scrooge’s ultimate transformation with an actual cartwheel that is every bit as nimble and precise as the rest of his performance.

There is a lot to like in this production — a “Jingle Bell Rock” Ghost of Christmas Present, Fred Sullivan Jr.’s swell turn as a Fezziwig from the 1920s, Stephen Thorne’s heartfelt Bob Cratchit and standout performances from D’Arcy Dersham in a number of small roles. The trip to the past of “Mad Men” nostalgia was fun.

Ultimately though, this year’s production, like Scrooge himself, needs to learn to live in “in the past, present and future.” Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

‘A Christmas Carol’

WHERE: Trinity Repertory Co., 201 Washington St., Newport

WHEN: Through Dec. 30; check website for showtimes

COST: $15 to $56

MORE INFO: 401/351-4242; www.trinityrep.com