It is a new take on Christmas streamers for sure!
Our friends at The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh are delighted to reveal further details regarding Lyceum Christmas Tales, a series of twelve new stories, commissioned by The Royal Lyceum Theatre Company, from brilliant Scottish writers told throughout December from The Lyceum stage. Within a Yule Tube (sort of!) cosy, tinsel-tinted, Christmas cracking context, every piece is showcase, snow-sprinkled with the Season’s merry Fairy-dust magic. Witty and wise, stuffed with mystery and surprise, these are tales Yule want to mull (certainly not whine!) over again and again.
The stories consist of eight pre-recorded Christmas tales free to download throughout December.
They include:
A Fairy Tale, by Morna Young and performed by Cal MacAninch
Nyanya and the Mighty Whizz!, written and performed by Mara Menzies
The Stage’s Door, written and performed by Andy Cannon
The Last Christmas Story, by Tony Cownie and performed by Tam Dean Burn
Santa is a Superhero, by Denise Mina and performed by Neshla Caplan
A Wee Bird Was Watching, written and performed by Karine Polwart
Bobby and Rabia, by Hammaad Chaundry and performed by Shyvonne Ahmmad
Tiny Tim, by Robert Softley Gale and performed by Garry Robson
In addition, from December 16-20 four live-streamed stories, performed with live music by Oguz Kaplangi and Michael John McCarthy come streamed from the specially adapted Lyceum stage. Ding-Dong merrily verily guaranteed to be family-friendly, festive feast featuring characters including fairies, dung beetles, Greyfriar’s Bobby and, of course, Santa himself!
The four live-streamed stories, performed daily from 16 – 20 December 2020:
Christmas with Angela Davis, by Jackie Kay and performed by Helen Katamba
The Christmas Ghost, by Louise Ironside and performed by Ryan Hunter
The Returning of the Light, by Lynda Radley and performed by Kirsty Findlay
A Cold Snap, by Shona Reppe, performed by Irene Allan
From Stalls and Circle seats to popcorn and pizza cosy sofas!
Artistic Director David Greig told The Edinburgh Reporter: “We desperately wanted to be able to invite people to join us in our theatre this Christmas – socially-distant, masked and hand-sanitised – but together, sharing stories. We’ve worked diligently and hopefully to make this happen, but it is now clear that, sadly, it just won’t be possible. We’re contacting seat-holders to offer refunds and inviting them instead to join us online from their living rooms as we perform these tales live from our stage each night for families to enjoy with us. We’ll be pulling out all the stops to bring the joyful experience of Christmas at The Lyceum to the sofas of Edinburgh and beyond, and we invite everyone to join in to share what promises to be a really special Christmas moment.”
Unfortunately, following the recent statement from The Scottish Government, The Lyceum has had to make the heart-breaking decision to cancel the sold out live-audience element of Lyceum Christmas Tales, and has begun refunding or transferring audiences to digital stream tickets. Despite The Lyceum putting into place wide ranging measures to ensure any visit to the theatre would be as covid-safe as possible, even a small assembled audience would sadly require public travel and gatherings beyond the level of caution advised by Scottish Government on 24 November. With the wellbeing of staff and audiences of paramount importance, the festive tales and magical music will be beamed into homes for all to enjoy safely.
Streaming tickets for the live show are available now priced from £10. Sign up here.
https://lyceum.org.uk/lyceum-christmas-tales
