Northern Stage has announced the cast and creative team for Neil Bartlett’s stage adaptation of A Christmas Carol which will run from 1 December to 5 January.
It will be directed by Mark Calvert who was the moving force behind The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (2015), James and the Giant Peach (2016) and Alice in Wonderland (2017). Joining him will be designer Rhys Jarman, lighting designer Sam Vivash, sound designer Nick John Williams, composer & musical director Hannabiell Sanders and movement director Martin Hylton.
Completely new to the creative team is Hannabiell Sanders, who also performs in the show. She is an African American Jamaican originally from New Jersey USA and is well known in the North East for her band Hannabiell & Midnight Blue. As a bass trombonist, she has performed with bands including The Drifters, Nobby Solano's salsa band The Geordie Latinos and the Harlem Symphony Orchestra. She has also worked as a freelance musician with the Kwazulu Natal Philharmonic Orchestra in Durban, South Africa and performed at the London 2012 Cultural Olympics in the BT River of Music Festival.
“Neil Bartlett’s adaptation stays true to the original with all the characters we know and love,” said Mark Calvert, “but we’ve had great fun setting our version in the 1920s. Rhys Jarman has taken inspiration from Peaky Blinders and The Great Gatsby for the set and costume design and Hannabiel Sanders’s music breathes new life into Christmas Carols with a fantastic jazz sound. It’s going to be joyful, magical, and shows just don’t get any more Christmassy than A Christmas Carol!”
Nick Figgis will play Scrooge. His family moved to Newcastle when he was 12 and he is a former student of Heaton Manor School. His work in theatre includes War Horse in the West End, The Deep Blue Sea at the National Theatre, Dog Boy at Manchester Royal Exchange and Bouncers at York Theatre Royal. TV includes Casualty, Skins, Byker Grove and Our Friends in the North.
He is joined by a cast of actor-musicians including Tim Dalling (James and the Giant Peach, Northern Stage), Clara Darcy (Alice in Wonderland, Northern Stage), Rachel Dawson (The Jungle Book, UK tour), Craig Fairbairn (Animal Farm, Northern Stage) and William Pennington (Treasure Island, New Vic) along with a chorus of six performance students from Newcastle College.
The production is recommended for ages 5+.