Brighton retelling of A Christmas Carol

James Turnbull is once again the producer as TRUESTORY return to the scene of their first success this Christmas.
James TurnbullJames Turnbull
James Turnbull

Led by actor/director Gary Sefton, they are staging A Christmas Carol at The Spire in Brighton – the venue where they launched with the same production two years ago.

Last year they took the show to Corby; this year, they return to Brighton where they sold out in 2015.

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A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is at The Spire, Eastern Road, Brighton, BN2 5JN from Wednesday, December 13-Thurday, December 28 with tickets available from [email protected] or on www.scroogeinspired.com.

Join Scrooge as he journeys through this classic family tale, with carols, candles, mince pies, mulled wine and some ghostly goings-on.

“The company is called TRUESTORY theatre company and is Gary’s company,” James explains. “Gary wanted to put on a show for Brighton because really there are no suitable family shows there. Gary saw the gap and decided to put on A Christmas Carol, and so we staged it in 2015 at The Spire on a really low budget, and the show absolutely smashed it. The show sold out and there were queues.

“Last year a venue in Corby bought the whole thing and took it there. Now we are pleased to be back in Brighton.

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“It’s a production which is as traditional as you can get whilst being super-modern, which sounds a ridiculous thing to say. The whole story is told in an hour. It is super-quick and super-pacy. And it is also completely immersive.

“It is a cast of eight. They are all actors who know Gary or have worked with him in the past. They are all professional actors who were just not working this Christmas. But I think what is unique about the show for me as a producer is the attitude of everyone. It is really collaborative. Everyone has built the set. Everyone has chipped in with everything. There are no prima donnas. It really feels like a community production with everyone working together on an equal basis.

“The venue is now a community interest arts development space. We were one of the first shows to go in there with A Christmas Carol, and now that we are going back, it has had quite a lot of different, bigger events in there. But what is distinctive about it is that it is still a disused church. It has got bits of plaster coming off the walls. It is not a beautiful church, but it is a really wonderful space to work in.”

www.scroogeinspired.com