A CHRISTMAS CAROL Announced For Christmas At The Liverpool Playhouse

The Liverpool Playhouse has announced an alternative take on Charles Dickens' festive ghost story A Christmas Carol as their Christmas production for 2018.

The perfect Christmas show for lovers of laughter and music, Charles Dickens' greatest tale will be brought to life in splendidly festive fashion by artists of comedic invention and madcap delight, Spymonkey from 8 December 2018 to 12 January 2019.

Toby Park, Petra Massey, Aitor Basauri and Sophie Russell, alongside director Ed Gaughan, designer Lucy Bradridge and a musical line-up including Ross Hughes and Marcus Penrose, will stamp their own unconventional style on this classic Christmas tale to put an oddball, and typically Spymonkey twist on some of Dickens' most famous roles.

Described as being 'somewhere between Monty Python, the Marx Brothers and Samuel Beckett', this is the theatre company's fourth visit to the Playhouse. 2009 saw Spymonkey take on Herman Melville's classic novel Moby Dick and in 2012 they brought Oedipussy - a Barbarella and James Bond-inspired re-telling of the Greek tragedy Oedipus.

Their last visit in 2016 saw the company present The Complete Deaths - a performance of all 74 deaths in the works of Shakespeare.

Toby Park, co-artistic director of Spymonkey, said: "This Christmas, we're inviting Liverpool to put on your best Victorian bib-and-tucker and hold on to your stovepipe hat, as the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future whisk us on a flight of theatrical fancy, with music, merriment and plenty of heart."

Spymonkey's A Christmas Carol is on at the Playhouse for 36 performances from Saturday 8 December to Saturday 12 January. Tickets are available from 11am on Tuesday 8 May by calling Box Office on 0151 709 4776 or at: www.everymanplayhouse.com/whats-on.