26 November 2020
Newsdesk
Casting and new dates have been announced for A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Newbury’s The Watermill Theatre – the third and final show in the autumn / winter season of work featuring shows with smaller cast sizes, reduced capacity inside the auditorium and socially distanced seating. Following the Government's announcement on Saturday 31 October of new national Coronavirus measures, the theatre was forced both to bring the run of LONE FLYER to an end, and to cancel the first scheduled performances of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, which was due to open on 26 November.
With today’s announcement that Berkshire has been placed in Tier 2 measures, A CHRISTMAS CAROL will now play from Thursday 3 December to Sunday 3 January. A limited number of press seats are available on request for various performances from 5 December.
It's Christmas Eve, and whilst London is alive with festive cheer and seasonal goodwill, the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge grows meaner by the minute. A heartless money lender, who cares more about counting his coins than for his fellow man, Scrooge despises Christmas and everything to do with it. But will a timely visit from the haunting ghosts of Christmas past, present and future change his wicked ways before it’s too late?
Two actor-musicians introduce us to Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and a host of extraordinary characters as you have never seen them before in a festive retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic tale.
Actor musicians Pete Ashmore and Tilly-Mae Millbrook will star as ‘Scrooge’ and ‘The Narrator’ respectively. Adapted by Danielle Pearson, directed by Georgie Staight and designed by Isobel Nicolson, A CHRISTMAS CAROL will see the cast working together as joint Musical Directors in order to create a magical festive soundscape. Lighting is designed by Harry Armytage with sound design by Tom Marshall and costume design by Emily Barratt.
Paul Hart said, “I'm incredibly proud that once again the team here will be opening a show so quickly - in fact we'll be open the very next day after restrictions are lifted and hope to welcome as many audiences as is safely possible over the Christmas period. Despite everything this year we've still managed to launch five new productions, welcoming 3438 audience members, 1774 outreach participants and employing 79 talented freelancers. I think we all need some Christmas joy more than ever and I've no doubt this production will deliver exactly that in a bold and innovative new version of this perennial favourite."
New government guidelines for venues in Tiers 1 and 2 state that the capacity of the auditorium should be reduced to 50% of full capacity (which for the Watermill is 213 seats). As part of Stage 4 of the existing DCMS roadmap, the auditorium was already reduced to 74, to create socially distanced seating bubbles – this equates to 34% of full capacity.
As well as these strict social distancing measures, other safety measures were implemented when the theatre reopened, including all audience members being required to wear face masks, hand sanitiser stations throughout the venue, a one-way system for accessing the toilets and signage to indicate routes and procedures. To enhance audience safety, a fogging machine is used to regularly sanitise all public areas at The Watermill, and to avoid recirculating air in the auditorium, the theatre is heated before audience members arrive, and then fresh air is continuously fed through the theatre during performances.
The Watermill Theatre will continue to operate in accordance with all government guidance at the time of the performance and will be constantly reviewing and adapting to the government’s guidelines. In the event that a show is unable to go ahead i.e. because of a change to the area’s tier for example, patrons will be contacted as soon as possible via email or phone and offered a transfer or credit or a refund for their tickets.
