Adrian Edmondson will star in A Christmas Carol later this month

THEATRE NEWS

Adrian Edmondson will play Ebenezer Scrooge in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s revival of David Edgar’s adaptation of Dickens’ much-loved classic story A Christmas Carol.

Adrian returns to the RSC after making his debut as Malvolio in Twelfth Night in 2017. His other theatre credits include: The Rocky Horror Show (Piccadilly Theatre), Waiting for Godot (Queens Theatre), Bits of Me Are Falling Apart (Soho Theatre), The Boy Friend (Menier Chocolate Factory) and Once Upon A Time in Nazi Occupied Tunisia (Almeida).

TV credits include: The Young Ones, The Comic Strip Presents…, Bottom, Blackadder, War & Peace, Bancroft, Save Me, Cheat, Out of Her Mind, Back To Life, Summer of Rockets, One of Us, Upstart Crow and A Spy Among Friends. Film credits include: Supergrass, The Pope Must Die, Guesthouse Paradiso and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Joining Adrian is Sunetra Sarker who makes her RSC debut as The Ghost of Christmas Present. Sunetra is a stalwart of British TV and is best known for a nearly ten year stint as Dr Zoe Hanna on BBC’s Casualty, three series of Channel Four’s No Angels, and currently as Kaneez Parach in Ackley Bridge, also for Channel Four. She reached the latter stages of Strictly Come Dancing in 2014, was the subject of Who Do You Think You Are? in 2017, and is currently a regular panellist on ITV’s Loose Women.

Sunetra’s other TV credits include: Desperate Measures, Sherwood, The Bay, Cold Feet, Informer, Hang Ups, Broadchurch, Safe House, Death in Paradise, Puppy Love, Doctor Who, Mobile, New Street Law, The Chase, Ideal, The Smoking Room, Eyes Down, City Life: Bloody Foreigners, Emmerdale, Streetlife, Playing The Field, Miller Shorts, Starting Out, London Bridge, Wing and A Prayer, Flight, Cracker, Bhangra Girls, Bread and Brookside. Her stage credits include: House of the Sun, One Night (Stratford East), Tale of Two Cities (West Yorkshire Playhouse) and The God Botherers (Bush Theatre)

David Edgar’s socially-conscious adaptation of Dickens’ classic fable opened in 2017 to critical acclaim in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, where it played to sell-out audiences. The production was revived the following year due to audience demand.

This festive tale of redemption and compassion follows cold-hearted businessman Ebenezer Scrooge, who – over the course of one ghostly Christmas night – learns to pity himself and to love his neighbour – but is that enough?

The full cast is: Beth Alsbury (Hinge), Lauren Arney (Belinda), Sally Cheng (Isabel), Eamonn Cox (Swing), Rachel Denning (Mrs Baldock), Adrian Edmondson (Ebenezer Scrooge), Gavin Fowler (Charles Dickens), Clive Hayward (Fezziwig), Jack Humphrey (Tim), Beruce Khan (John Forster), Rebecca Lacey (The Ghost of Christmas Past), Bethany Linsdell (Caroline), Michael Lyle (Father), Alexander Moneypenny (Swing), Conor O’Hara (Swing), Emma Pallant (Mrs Cratchit), Joseph Prowen (Fred), Sunetra Sarker (The Ghost of Christmas Present), Rachel Seirian (Swing), Oliver Senton (Uber), Mitesh Soni (Bob Cratchit), Liyah Summers (Fanny), Giles Taylor (Marley) and Georgie Westall (Swing).

The production, directed by Rachel Kavanaugh, runs in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon between 26 October 2022 – 1 January 2023.