Opening: Another Carol, RSC Gunpowder & CircusDate: 16 December 2005
As the theatre calendar slows down ahead of the holidays, there are only a few openings in the days before Christmas this week. They include:
OPENING TUESDAY, 20 December 2005, at the 100-seat Trafalgar Studios 2, Horla presents yet another version of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’ classic about the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge and his visitation from the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future (See News, 5 Oct 2005). This is the third West End presentation of the festive classic this winter, following Patrick Stewart’s one-man version at the Albery and Tommy Steele in Leslie Bricusse’s musical version Scrooge at the London Palladium. The Horla production continues its limited season until 7 January 2006.
OPENING THURSDAY, 22 December 2005 (previews 21 December), also at Trafalgar Studios, the Royal Shakespeare Company transfers its acclaimed Gunpowder Season, marking the 400th anniversary of the infamous plot to blow up Parliament, to the larger, 400-seat Studio 1 (See News, 26 Aug 2005). The season opens with Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s A New Way to Please You, directed by Sean Holmes and designed by Kandis Cook. Written in 1632, the black comedy revolves around a law requiring every man of 80 years and woman of 60 years to be ‘put down’ as they’re no longer useful to society.
A New Way to Please You runs until 31 December 2005 and is followed by the season’s other plays - Thomas More, Believe What You Will, Sejanus: His Fall and Speaking Like Magpies - all first seen earlier this year at Stratford-upon-Avon’s Swan Theatre.
OPENING FRIDAY, 23 December 2005, the Queen Elizabeth Hall hosts a Christmas season of the Chinese State Circus, featuring Shaolin Wu-Shu Warriors and artists from Peking Opera. The season runs until 6 January 2006.
- by Caroline Ansdell
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