Tickets are on sale now for A Christmas Carol at The Theatre Chipping Norton, following the announcement that the much-loved theatre will be welcoming audiences over the festive season.

The theatre is delighted to have secured the rights to Simon Callow’s acclaimed one-man adaptation of A Christmas Carol the ultimate classic Christmas tale which has been performed in the West End. 

“There is no better Scrooge on earth than David Bradley!”

Based on Charles Dickens’ own one-man readings of the story, this moving, captivating stage version, goes straight to the heart of an all-time literary classic. Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, and a trio of ghosts will perform the festive story.

John added: “It will take our audiences into a fictional world and be appealing to all age groups. It is a story that is particularly relevant now and we hope that audiences will enjoy the home comfort of the play and familiarity of coming to our little theatre nestled in a small town.

“Mulled wine, atmospheric live music and one of the most loved classics of the English language should make this a Christmas trip to remember. We hope it will be a fully festive experience – with perhaps just a light dusting of snow to add to the atmosphere!”

As to who should perform the Christmas classic, John was in no doubt about that: “There is no better Scrooge on earth than David Bradley! He looks like the character but is a very gentle, humorous and open man and those qualities are very much part of the character he plays and the innocent rebirth that Scrooge goes through.

“David has had a huge decade of screen work but has not worked on stage for a while,  so we caught him at just the right time.”

David Bradley is one of the country’s finest stage and screen actors, including renowned performances as Filch in the Harry Potter films and Walder Frey in Game of Thrones.

We felt comfortable that A Christmas carol was something we could take a risk with AT THE THEATRE”

He won a British Academy Television Award for his role in Broadchurch and an Olivier Award for his performance in King Lear for the National Theatre.

John must be delighted?: “It’s great to have some good news to tell everyone. We are all facing uncertain futures and this is a great morale boost for all of us at the theatre.”

The news follows the announcement that the legendary Chipping Norton pantomime cannot go ahead this year.

John added: “Our pantomime has been postponed to next year. Because of the scale of our show it is just not viable, and we could not make it work within the social distancing requirements.

“So, we started looking for something on a smaller scale that we could perhaps put on. There are so many families in this area who come to our pantomime. It is a big part of their Christmas ritual and we have spent a lot of time thinking about what we could do.”

Theatre Director John Terry

John added: “We will be performing this in a socially-distanced way, and we are very used to working like this now as we are open for all our workshops and three or four days a week, we have cinema showings.

“The fear has been taken out of this new way of working now and we are really happy to be back in the building. It was all about finding a piece that made sense for an audience of 70.

“It’s great to have some good news to tell everyone and a great morale boost for all of us at the theatre.”

” A Christmas Carol has few performers and is a stripped back production. We will be able to slip between scenes and worlds easily as there is no need for lots of costumes or big sets to build. We felt comfortable that this was something we could take a risk with.”

A CHRISTMAS CAROL starring David Bradley at The Theatre Chipping Norton from December 2-24.

Tickets and more information at www.chippingnortontheatre.com

SARAH EDWARDS