Shakespeare North reimagines a madcap version of Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol

Shakespeare North has recreated A Christmas Carol with a distinctly Knowsley feel this festive season. The result is a slightly bonkers, fast and furious retelling of the original text with a host of musical instruments, some familiar local references and a sprinkling of pantomime fun.

There's quite a lot of audience participation throughout the show, with the crowd creating sound effects.

Jessica Dives is the Musical Director and also stars in the production, she says: "It would be quite easy for that to feel sort of juvenile and like it may be a kids show, but it absolutely isn't. Some of the best fun with our audience participation moments have been in crowds with maybe only two or three children in the audience that night."

For those unfamiliar with the Charles Dickens classic, the play centres around Ebenezer Scrooge, a mean man who's lost the spirit of Christmas. Three mysterious visitors make him see that there is more to life than counting his pennies.

‘We put loads of bits of Prescot in it’

Director Ellie Hurt said: "Because there's this lovely new theatre here, we wanted to do something that really felt like it was for the people who lived here. So, I worked really closely with the adapter Nick Lane on the story. We put loads of bits of Prescot in it.

“He came and spent time over here, made friends with people in the café on the High Street. Really got to know the place and the people in it to put all those Prescot-isms in it all the way through. So, hopefully, people should hear some things that they recognise in the songs, in the dialogue, and it really feels like it's written for the community here.”

A Christmas Carol is at Shakespeare North Playhouse until Saturday, 7 January.