A Christmas Carol to bring Harry Potter-esque magic and festive spirit to Canberra this December.

Posted on 25 July, 2022

This December, the magic of your favorite Christmas story comes to life as shake & stir theatre co presents Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at The Canberra Theatre Centre.

It’s the classic tale you know and love: Ebenezer Scrooge is counting down the seconds until the silliness of the Christmas season passes, but when four ghosts whisk him away on a journey through Christmases past, present, and future, it’s Dickens like you’ve never seen it before—and you won’t be saying “bah humbug” when the night is over.

Leaving the Lyric Theatre in Brisbane for the first time in four years to bring Charles Dickens’ classic to life in Canberra from Tuesday 20 until Saturday 24 December, you can kickstart your festive celebrations this year with special Christmas performances that are full of song, humour, love, and lashings of festive joy.

Describing the 90-minute show as “cinematic”, “slightly dark” and even “Harry Potter-esque” in its magic, according to producer Nick Skubij A Christmas Carol is the perfect grand-in-scale stage production that fuses modernity with Dickens’ London—and the ultimate nostalgic experience for the whole family

“It’s been told so many different times in so many different forms and it’s a tradition over on the West End and on Broadway. Lots of cities around the world share this tale every year and it becomes that festive tradition that audiences can look forward to,” he explains.

“We’ve presented this show in scale, so it’s a big production with all the bells and whistles. It’s got some incredible technology, it’s very dark, it’s got all of the things that you expect from a production of A Christmas Carol but it feels very much a story for now as much as it was a story for the age that it was written in.”

Photography: David Fell

Reimagining the classic and injecting modern-day theatrics and technology, shake & stir’s A Christmas Carol skirts the line between mechanics and magic, using innovative video design to give the darker elements of the story—the iconic ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future—a life of their own.

For Nick, this was one of the most important components of the classic Christmas tale. Looking at how to bring the otherworldly element that haunts Scrooge to the stage, he says the team wanted to completely transport Australian audiences.

“There are some almost cinematic moments that appear through holographic projections and there’s a visceral element to the darker side of this story,” he says.

“It does skirt that line between feeling like a production while being very contemporary in its presentation. It’s got all of the bits and pieces that you’d expect with A Christmas Carol; there’s live music on stage, there’s caroling, but it sort of sits in a world that feels almost Harry Potter-esque.”

“For young audiences coming into the theatre—possibly for the first time—they’re going to be able very easily to connect to the style and the world, because it’s not unlike films that they have grown up with that are in that fantasy spectacular genre.”

Complete with lavish costumes and, (of course) snow, it’s an immersive experience that allows theatregoers to walk through the doors and feel like they’ve been literally taken back to Dickens’ London.

And with the last show premiering on Christmas Eve, it’s a great reminder of the Christmas spirit.

“It’s such a classic story, it’s such an uplifting tale and it’s such a timely reminder at that time of year of the joys and the benefits of treating people with respect and the magic that can come from that,” says Nick. “It brings back that nostalgia and it really helps to get you into the Christmas spirit.”

“We’re very excited to be bringing something that is so luscious, lavish, and beautiful to Canberra.”

Feature image: Dylan Evans