This festive season European Arts Company returns following a highly successful 2018 run
of A Christmas Carol. Inspired by Dickens’s own charitable work, the 2019 tour is in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital, reflecting the heart-warming message of Scrooge’s philanthropic transformation in this perfect Christmas story.

Audiences will be thrilled to experience A Christmas Carol as Dickens himself performed it over 150 years ago. He was the first writer to publicly act out his own work and, in doing so, invented a new genre of performance. Working with the script Dickens used, actor John O’Connor plays over 20 characters, skilfully drawing the audience into this Victorian ghost story about the power of compassion and generosity to transform lives.

Deftly taking them from Dickens’s own warm study, to Scrooge’s freezing house and the Cratchits’ welcoming dinner table even the most miserly of hearts will be stirred this festive season. Beautiful sets by Tom Paris are based on a combination of Dickens’s travelling cases and the warmth of his London sitting room, lending real intimacy to this poignant production. This Christmas, audiences can experience what it must have been like to be in the presence of Charles Dickens himself!

This is a beautifully intimate piece of storytelling with a familial, cosy atmosphere. It embraces its classical origin and has a true heart-warming Christmas spirit (York Press, 2018).

John O’Connor lives in Rochester where Dickens grew up and set many of his stories including Great Expectations, The Pickwick Papers and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. O’Connor says, In these times of austerity and uncertainty, this beautiful story is as relevant now as it was in 1843. It’s fascinating to see how Dickens communicated it so directly to his audiences in public performances. He made them laugh and cry in equal measure, taking them on a magical journey and imparting the true spirit of Christmas. The show is a chance for audiences to feel what that was like. It’s a joy to do and we will have some fun along the way.

Laura Savory, Head of Community Fundraising at Great Ormond Street Hospital says We are delighted that European Arts Company is raising money through their production of A Christmas Carol to support the valuable work of Great Ormond Street Hospital. Charles Dickens was instrumental in helping to support the hospital when it was founded in 1852 and did some early public readings of A Christmas Carol in aid of GOSH.

This production has been generously supported by Arts Council England.

Running time 90 minutes including interval

Box Office Tickets are available from individual theatre box offices
http://europeanarts.co.uk/next#tour-dates

Twitter @EuropeanArtsCo, #AChristmasCarol

Performer John O’Connor
Director Peter Craze
Lighting Design Duncan Hands
Sound Design Matthew Eaton
Costume Design Annett Black
Set Design Tom Paris

John O’Connor

John is an actor, writer, director and producer, and founded European Arts Company in 2002. He studied Drama at Manchester University before living and working in Japan. As an actor, John was in Four Farces at Wilton’s Music Hall (Critic’s Choice in The Times) and was Ben/Richard in The Dumb Waiter & The Lover (National Tour). He had a busy evening playing Sousov, Smirnov, Nikita Ivanich and Lomov in Chekhov’s Shorts (UK, Ireland and Germany Tour). He also played Richard Hannay in The 39 Steps (Embros Theatre, Athens). Other theatre credits include London Continental (Arcola Theatre), The Boundary (Gielgud Theatre) and Soap Opera (Barbican Theatre). TV includes commercials and work for BBC TV Training at Elstree. John wrote The Trials of Oscar Wilde and adapted The Picture of Dorian Gray with Wilde’s grandson Merlin Holland both of which had sell-out runs at Trafalgar Studios and are now published by Samuel French. He has recently directed George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion in Italy.

Performance Dates

27th November Theatre Royal, Margate
Addington St, Margate CT9 1PW

28th November Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells
Church Rd, Royal Tunbridge Wells TN1 1JP

29th November Discovery Centre, Winchester
Jewry St, Winchester SO23 8SB

30th November Stantonbury Theatre, Milton Keynes
Stantonbury, MK14 6BN

1st December Mumford Theatre, Cambridge
Anglia Ruskin University, East Road, Cambridge CB1 1PT

2nd December Stafford Gatehouse Theatre, Stafford
Eastgate St, Stafford ST16 2LT

3rd December The Lights, Andover
Andover College, Andover SP10 1AH

4th December Old Town Hall, Hemel Hempstead
High St, Hemel Hempstead HP1 3AE

5th – 7th December The Old Courtroom, Brighton
118 Church St, Brighton BN1 1UD

9th December Greenwich Theatre Studio, London
Crooms Hill, London SE10 8ES

10th – 11th December Stamford Arts Centre, Stamford
27 St Mary's St, Stamford PE9 2DL

12th – 13th December The Courtyard, Hereford
The Courtyard, Edgar St, Hereford HR4 9JR
15th December Loughborough Town Hall
Market Place, Loughborough LE11 3EB

17th – 21st December York Theatre Royal, The De Grey Rooms
St Leonard's Place, York YO1 7HD

23rd December Greenwich Theatre Studio, London
Crooms Hill, London SE10 8ES

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