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This Christmas, the masters of vintage theatrical comedy The Fitzrovia Radio Hour return to London year with their unique take on Charles Dickens’ timeless tale after an acclaimed run at The Vaults last year.
The festive classic is reimagined as a 1940s-style radio Christmas special, broadcasting live with a studio audience across the mighty British Empire. Fighting off visitations from more ghosts than they bargained for, can the multi-tasking cast keep the spiffing sounds and varied inhabitants of Victorian London alive for the duration of the broadcast?
We spoke to co-artistic directors of The Fitzrovia Radio Hour, Tom Mallaburn and Jon Edgley Bond, to find out more.
There are quite a few versions of A Christmas Carol in London this December, what makes yours different?
Jon: We have two shows in one! Without giving too much away, the 1940s radio actors have their own story and rivalries alongside their performance of ‘A Christmas Carol’. Also, by dint of the radio broadcast conceit, our audience are involved in the show in a unique way and are treated to a plethora of live sound effects (which the actors perform themselves, whilst playing all the characters).
Where did you get the idea to adapt Dickens classic story in this way?
Tom: We were doing a Fitzrovia show, a Christmas special of some of our original stories, at the St James Theatre (now called the Other Palace) in 2015. On the last night I was watching it, and there was an advert in it that had the character of Scrooge in very briefly (advertising cigarettes!)… and I thought to myself “maybe we should do an adaptation of A Christmas Carol next year? Is that too obvious an idea?!” Then I discussed it with Jon and we decided it would be great fun, but that we’d try and add as many complications to the story as possible!
Tell us a bit more about The Fitzrovia Radio Hour and why you founded it?
Jon: About ten years ago, we had the opportunity to make a show once a month in a Soho bar. It needed to fit the space, and the bar was decorated in a 1940s way so dinner suits and evening dresses were a natural fit. We had no money and little time, so when we found a fantastic resource of original vintage radio scripts online (very soon after we began writing our own) the answer seemed obvious – with yellow scripts in hand we had a radio/theatre show. Our early audiences were fascinated by our sound effects, so at each of our monthly shows that side of it grew in complexity.. We also wanted a long running team, a close nit rep company – many of our actors have been performing with us since the beginning, ten years ago!
What are the challenges of creating a radio show, that isn’t actually on the radio?
Jon: It’s a hugely technical challenge for the actors. A great deal of our rehearsal time is taken up switching between choreographing sound effects and performing multiple characters. The sound of potting a snooker ball can use the entire cast and each actor can be playing ten characters, sometimes several in one scene! We also like to create each sound effect in the most theatrical way. We’re very keen to make each sound as good as possible, but keep it visually arresting. For ‘A Christmas Carol’ we made a special, and quite elaborate, device to make the sound of a coin being tossed!
The cast includes Michael Lumsden, from The Archers how has his experience helped?
Tom: Michael’s a joy to work with. Not just his very real radio experience with The Archers, but his attitude to working on this silly show has been tremendous. He’s really enjoyed himself doing it and that enjoyment is infectious. He’s also been incredibly patient with us – last year we made a lot of last minute changes to the script, a lot of which involved his character (who is involved in a very significant plot twist!), so he was having to learn lots of new stuff very quickly and then having to sell it to an audience a few hours later – without any complaint! I’m sure he won’t mind that this year we’ve completed rewritten his part again. (Only joking, Michael!)
You did this last year at The Vaults, what difference do you think it will make being part of Christmas at Leicester Square?
Tom: I think it’ll allow a much wider audience to enjoy the show. We really enjoyed performing at the Vaults, and would love to perform there again, but in Leicester Square we should be able to get people of all ages and nationalities coming along to the show! It’s a bigger performing area, the Paridiso tent (we’ve performed there before when it was on the South Bank) which may mean we have to turn the microphones up a bit! But it should be a great experience for the audience and I think there’ll be lots of fun to be had with the lighting in there.
The Fitzrovia Radio Hour’s A Christmas Carol is at Christmas at Leicester Square 8th – 30th December 2017.
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