Festive fun with a Victorian slant

A Victorian Christmas Past uses theatre, storytelling, audience interaction and shadow puppetry, and will be performed at the Quaker Meeting House in High Street on Tuesday at 7.30pm.

The play is written by Emma Sian Cooper and presented by theatre company Tell Tale. It begins on Christmas Eve at a charity school where the young Boy Jones entertains his classmates with a story book which he claims his father ‘acquired’ from Queen Victoria. As he turns its pages the book’s inhabitants begin to come to life and the dark orphanage is fleetingly visited by the magical shadows of flying reindeers, snowflake goblins and ice maidens. The children are transported on enchanted journey, meeting along the way a host of real-life characters responsible for such Christmas institutions as trees, crackers, carol singing and workplace parties.

Director Taresh Solanki said: “A Victorian Christmas Past has all the ingredients you would expect from a Christmas play along with some great seasonal trivia for the Christmas dinner table. Audiences of all ages are encouraged to participate in a number of ways from playing parlour games and carol singing to taking on familiar roles in the greatest Christmas story ever told.”

The show premiered at the Lord Leycester Hospital in 2012.

It was then adapted to a promenade performance for the Magic Alley Theatre where it enjoyed sell out runs in 2013 and 2014.

Tickets cost £10 or £6 for concessions.

Call 0844 8248600 or visit www.skiddle/tickets.com to book.