MUSIC & STAGE

Tim Skelton as Ebenezer Scrooge at The Groundlings Theatre. the Victorian classic is a straightforward play.

‘It's quite a nice alternative, if you want to see something rather than a panto, or a panto AND this. It's something which still has that Christmas-y spirit to it.

‘And because we've got quite a flexible theatre space, we've been working out how to make it interestinginteres for our audience so we'rew making it semimersivem – so it's an perience as soon as eye walk through the oor, they're into the rrld of it.’ y admits the world oom rehearsalsr and socially-distanced set-building has created challenges. ‘It's had its highs and lows. We've been faced with one problem after another, and then with the second lockdown and then restrictions changing, it's certainly kept us on our toes. And whatever the next problem we've had to face is, we're: “Right, how do we tackle this in a way that's safe for our cast members and our audience?” It's been scary, but being able to rise to it has been very fulfilling.’

With its obviously festive links and the author’s ties to Portsmouth, it’s perhaps odd that A Christmas Carol isn't performed more in the city. And it nearly wasn’t this year. The Groundlings Theatre had originally planned to stage Dick Whittington this December. But when the bigger Kings Theatre changged its plans from Peter Pan to also put on Dick, the smaller theatre decided they had no choice but to find something new.

Amy Harrison, the show’s codirector and producer says:

‘It was a pretty quick decision, because we have links with Charles Dickens here and A Christmas Carol is such a well-known and loved story, we thought that would be the perfect alternative.’

This new adaptation of

as soon as theywalk through the door,