Casting is today announced for Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol at Windsor Castle. Due to popular demand additional performances have been added for the sell-out run, which will be staged in the Castle's magnificent State Apartments. Tickets for the new performances are now on sale.
Presented by theatre company Watch Your Head, the family-friendly evening performances of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol will take place in the Castle's two largest rooms, where the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret performed Christmas pantomimes during the Second World War.
The full cast will include John Kay Steel as Jacob Marley, Edward Halsted as Ebenezer Scrooge, Eleanor Brown as Belle, Charlie Ward as Tiny Tim, Oliver Hamilton as Fred, Michelle Hodgson as Mrs Cratchit, Molly Hanson as Belinda and Marlon Moore as Bob Cratchit.
Tailor-made for Windsor Castle and using Dickens's own words from his public readings of the classic tale, the production will feature live music and immersive elements, transporting the audience into a Victorian Christmas. Visitors will accompany Ebenezer Scrooge from the Castle gates to the Waterloo Chamber, where Jacob Marley awaits to conjure his haunting dreams of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. The cast of actors and musicians performing all around will transform the colossal space into Dickensian London, before the audience follows Scrooge into St George's Hall to celebrate his new-found festive spirit beneath the Castle's spectacular Christmas tree.
Monarchs have been celebrating Christmas at Windsor Castle since the 12th century, but it was Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who introduced many of the Christmas traditions that we know today. Prince Albert is credited with popularising the German tradition of Christmas trees while enjoying the festive season at the Castle, and the Queen and Prince Albert were often seen ice skating and enjoying winter sleigh rides in the Castle grounds.
It was during this period that Dickens first published A Christmas Carol in 1843, and it has remained a festive classic ever since. The work can be seen in miniature in the library of Queen Mary's Dolls' House, built in the early 1920s as a perfect replica of an aristocratic Edwardian residence and housed ever since at Windsor Castle.
Their third collaboration with Royal Collection Trust, Watch Your Head's latest production follows their recently staged immersive performances of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Castle's Moat Garden.
A Christmas Carol is directed by Sasha McMurray with an original score by Joseph Reuben, costume design by Annina Pfuel, choreography by Edwin Ray and puppetry design by Jeremy Hamway-Bidgood.
A Christmas Carol Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1NJ
Dates 16 December – 4 January
Press performance 20 December
Performance schedule 16–17, 20–23, 27–30 December, 3–4 January
Entry from 18:00, performance starts 19:00. Performance lasts 90 minutes including a 20-minute interval
Ticket prices Adults: £30.00; Children (Under 17s): £25.00; Family (2 adults, 3 children): £110.00
Book online www.royalcollection.org.uk/christmascarol
Book by phone +44 (0)303 123 7340
Website www.watch-your-head.co.uk | www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/windsorcastle
Social media Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, #followscrooge
Cast Biographies
John Kay Steel’s theatre credits include The Red Barn (National Theatre), School for Wives (Southampton Nuffield Theatre), Change of Heart (New End Theatre) and Gagarin Way (PrimeCut Theatre co). Film credits include leading role of Jesus in The Revolutionary and George Orwell in Against the Time.
Edward Halsted has a career in the industry spanning 40 years with theatre credits including The Drowned Man, Crash of the Elysium, Faust and Firebird Ball all for Punchdrunk, Twelve Angry Men (UK Tour) and Single Spies (National Theatre).
Eleanor Brown’s theatre credits include Singin’ in the Rain (Salisbury Playhouse, New Vic and Bolton Octagon), The Wipers Times (Watermill Theatre / UK Tour), Thoroughly Modern Millie (Watermill Theatre) and Mamma Mia (International Tour).
Charlie Ward recently graduated from Performance Preparation Academy (PPA). Credits while training include Game Plan and Cyrano de Bergerac and The Pirates of Penzance.
Oliver Hamilton graduated from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with an MA in acting this year. Credits while training included The Wonderful World of Dissocia and Beweep Outcast. Olive is also a musician and has played in Parade and The Last 5 Years.
Michelle Hodgson’s numerous stage credits include Hunyak and Roxie in the original company of Chicago (Adelphi Theatre), Budgie (Cambridge Theatre), Cats (New London Theatre), Crazy for You (Prince Edward Theatre) and Grease (Dominion Theatre).
Molly Hanson most recently starred as Toby Maitland in the all-female Posh (Pleasance Theatre). Other theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It and Cinderella all for Watch Your Head.
Marlon Moore’s stage credits include Dirty Dancing (UK Tour), 9 to 5 The Musical (UK Tour), Starlight Express (Germany), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (West End & Tour) and Honk (Edinburgh Festival).
Creative Biographies
Annina Pfuel trained at the Parsons School of Design in New York. Her work as a costume designer includes Waiting for Godot (Arcola Theatre), Solaris and Tannhäuser both for Cologne Opera and What Your Head’s As You Like It.
Edwin Ray is currently performing in Follies (National Theatre). Choreography work includes Two Singular Sensations (Purple Playhouse, Brighton Fringe) and Teddy (Southwark Playhouse). Performance credits include Early Adventures, Edward Scissorhands, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker!, Cinderella and Swan Lake all for Matthew Bourne’s Adventures.
Jeremy Hamway-Bidgood is artistic director of Pangolin’s Teatime, which makes puppet-based work for theatre, TV and film, working with BBC, Comedy Central, Matt Lucas’ John Stanley Productions, Passion Pictures and Looking Glass Productions.
Joseph Reuben is British composer who has scored music for the Prague National Ballet, Bratislava Symphony Orchestra as well as global commercials for the US Superbowl 2017, Chevrolet and Cannes Lions winning film for The Princes Trust.
Tickets for A Christmas Carol at The Old Vic on sale through
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