New Old Friends' A CHRISTMAS GETAWAY Will Be Performed at Theatre Royal Bath in December

New Old Friends are set to return to the Ustinov Studio at Theatre Royal Bath this Christmas with a new, fast-paced festive farce. With a cast of four actors playing multiple roles with lightning quick changes, the award-winning company will bring this frantic Christmas catastrophe to life.

It's been a tough year and the Jameson family are all planning to enjoy a Christmas Eve getaway at their soon-to-be sold country home. The catch is, everyone planned to do it in secret; the daughter is with her lover, the mother is with the daughter's fiancé, the father is with the neighbour, the maid is with the local oik, and the underpaid butler is eyeing up both the housekeeper and the valuables.

Feargus Woods Dunlop said, "We've been associated with Theatre Royal Bath for so long, indeed we even met each other in the foyer whilst working on a pantomime project, we've performed in all three of the spaces multiple times and we are thrilled to be presenting this brand new Christmas show for adults to compliment the excellent family fare in the Main House & The Egg. This is the first totally new show we have built since the pandemic and returning to a world of creation, joy and silliness has been glorious."

Heather Dunlop said: "Whenever we build a new show we only ever have one goal in mind; to entertain our audiences to the fullest extent possible. For A Christmas Getaway we wondered what a classic British farce would look like when viewed through the New Old Friends prism of four actors multirolling, and we're thrilled with the possibilities for comic chaos it has thrown up. We're also huge fans of classic TV comedy so expect at least one nod to Morecambe & Wise's fabulous Christmas specials."

New Old Friends are an award-winning theatre company dedicated to creating original comedy theatre, founded in 2008 and run by husband and wife team Feargus Woods Dunlop and Heather Westwell. Last year saw New Old Friends release the first in a new audio drama series Comedy Whodunnits For Your Ears, with Crimes Against Christmas (OnComm Award winner) charting at #2 in the Apple iTunes Fiction chart and inside the top 200 overall podcast charts as well as featuring on BBC Radio 4's Front Row. Recent instalments also include Crimes on Centre Court and Crimes of a Country Garden, both released earlier this year as well as an Autumn regional tour of Crimes in Egypt. Their most recent production in Bath was Crimes, Camera, Action which premiered in the Main House this August after a Covid-enforced delay, described by Financial Times as "a knowingly ludicrous pastiche of Hollywood film noir dramas that's crammed to the gills with knife-sharp visual gags and murderously bad puns".

In 2017 and 2018 New Old Friends were awarded the Creative Bath Award for writing. Previous shows also include five instalments of the hugely popular Crimes... series of comedy thrillers. In summer 2019, their adaptation of Anthony Horowitz' The Falcon's Malteser enjoyed a six-week run at London's Vaults Theatre. It was selected as a 'Critic's Choice' for 'Best Family Shows' by the Guardian. Their latest show for families, Swiss Family Robinson (Top 40 Christmas shows 2019, inews) premiered at The Core at Corby Cube in 2019.

Booking: theatreroyal.org.uk | 01225 448844

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