Last Updated on 26 December 2020 by Showcall Editorial Team
Leeds Playhouse is making A Christmas Carol available to watch at home after stage performances were cancelled due to lockdown.
Leeds Playhouse is to make its production of A Christmas Carol available to watch online after live stage performances were cancelled by the area going into Tier 3 lockdown.
The adaptation, written by Deborah McAndrew and directed by Amy Leach, features Jack Lord as Scrooge plus Stephen Collins, Nadia Nadarajah, Dan Parr, Tessa Parr, Lladel Bryant, Everal A Walsh and Lisa Howard. It was due to run in the Quarry Theatre from 3 December to 9 January.
The theatre worked with Yorkshire-based company Pilot Theatre to film the production and share it for free with care homes, schools and hospitals in Leeds. It will now be available for anyone to watch, from £10 per ticket, for five online broadcasts from 21 to 23 December via its Playhouse At Home platform.
Based on the original production at Hull Truck Theatre, performances include integrated British Sign Language (BSL) and captioning as well as creative audio description thanks to Hear the Picture.
Leach, who is associate director at Leeds Playhouse, said: “Our vivid retelling of one of the best-loved stories in English literature was inspired by the evocative beauty and intrinsic hope of the ghost lights that continued to burn bright while theatres across the land were forced to go dark when the pandemic hit.
“Our aim now with Playhouse At Home is to share that same light and hope with people in their own homes, giving them the best seats in the house for a story infused with goodwill, festive spirit and optimism.”
Leeds Playhouse is offering a screening of the production for free to closed wards of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, to residents in three local care homes and to places for adults with a learning disability.
Ticket holders who booked for cancelled shows will be sent the digital version for free. The Playhouse is also providing the production to 1,000 NHS key workers and their families.
Leeds Playhouse’s artistic director James Brining said: “It feels more important than ever that we should honour our ongoing commitment to the wider Playhouse community in Leeds, the city-region and beyond, giving our more vulnerable neighbours the chance to experience the life-enhancing joy of live theatre at Christmas in the comfort and safety of familiar surroundings”.
