Following their successful cricket ground tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream this summer, Scoot Theatre have announced a two-week residency at East Molesey Cricket Club, near Hampton Court, for the festive season. They will be staging a brand new, family friendly adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by Scoot founder Max Hutchinson. Three actor-musicians will present this festive favourite in sixty minutes with a bit of a twist, as Hutchinson explains:
“I think we’re all looking for a bit of a laugh at the moment and so our version is going to be a fun, light-hearted take – without sacrificing the soul of the story.”
Ours is a play-within-a play and the idea is that the main actor, legend-in-his-own-opinion, “Darren Broccolis”, has written and directed the script and then cast himself in the main role, in what he hopes will be a ‘star vehicle’. He’s spent nearly all the budget on a hugely expensive Victorian costume for himself, so has to enlist the services of a very keen (and very inexpensive) young actor and his painfully shy niece to play all the other parts. But as the story goes on, Darren of course learns the true meaning of Christmas and the value of community, just like old Scrooge!”
Scoot Theatre was established over the summer. Their first production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream toured for two weeks and played to over 2500 people, getting an excellent national review along the way.
Hutchinson adds “Scoot’s aim is to bring theatre to unexpected spaces and offer live entertainment to people in a safe and responsible way, particularly those who might not feel comfortable travelling very far in the current circumstances. We want to spread a bit of Christmas cheer at the end of this incredibly difficult year for everyone. There’s going to be mulled wine and mince pies and even
Christmas trees on sale, so hopefully we can get everyone feeling nice and festive! As it says in the book:
“It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour.”
Scoot Theatre’s A Christmas Carol will open at East Molesey Cricket Club on Tuesday 8 December and run until Sunday 20 December. Tickets are available at www.riverhousebarn.co.uk or via Scoot’s website www.scoottheatre.com
