The traditional Christmas staple of Charles Dickens’ much loved A Christmas Carol, returns this festive season to the West End stage starring Simon Callow, running at the Arts Theatre for a strictly limited season from 8 December to 12 January.
With critically acclaimed, sell-out seasons in 2011, 2012 and 2016, A Christmas Carol with Simon Callow, has become a traditional and well-loved adaptation for the festive season. Using the adaptation Dickens made for his own public performances, Simon Callow together with director and designer Tom Cairns, have conjured up a moving, funny and fast-paced one-man theatrical spectacular, that is both intensely dramatic and profoundly heart-warming.
Dickens takes us on a man’s astonishing journey through his past, his present and (terrifyingly) his future, led by his three ghostly guides. Will Ebenezer Scrooge, tight-fisted, cruel and bitter, finally re-join the human race and learn to embrace the true generous and humble spirit of Christmas?
From the miser’s dank and creaking house filled with shadows to cosy hearths, from stark graveyards to joyful festivities, this treasured story offers a celebration of goodness, a plea for justice and the promise of redemption.
National treasure, Simon Callow, is returning to reprise his role and is stepping back into Charles Dickens’ shoes following previous performances as the author in the stage productions The Mystery of Charles Dickens at the Playhouse Theatre, Dr Marigold & Mr Chops at Riverside Studios, the film Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairytale, on television in the BBC’s An Audience with Charles Dickens, and Doctor Who in 2005 and 2011. Callow has even written two books about the author, Dickens’ Christmas in 2003 and Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World in 2012.
The enduring popularity of A Christmas Carol, both as a novel and on stage, is testament to a story that transcends over centuries and it has never been out of print. Within two months of its original publication in 1843, eight stage productions were known to have been mounted, and Dickens himself chose the story to perform not only at his first public reading in 1853 but also at his farewell performance in 1869.
A Christmas Carol is produced by Assembly Festival, directed and designed by Tom Cairns, with sound design by Ben and Max Ringham, and lighting by Adam Povey.
Alongside the return of the critically acclaimed stage production, Simon Callow and Tom Cairns have also reimagined the production especially for the cinema. A Christmas Carol starring Simon Callow is in cinemas nationwide on Tuesday 11 December. Visit www.cinemalive.com for screenings.
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