Christmas shows from Theatre at the Tabard

Image: Theatre at the Tabard’s Christmas production of The Snow Queen

A magical fairy story, actual magic, and comedy

Theatre at the Tabard has a great line-up for Christmas: a very promising family show in The Snow Queen, produced in-house; a couple of interesting sounding one-man Christmas shows for one night only – The Magician Who Stole Christmas with Alex Sprackling and A History of Christmas with Paul Kerensa – and two A-list comedians trying out new material – Jenny Eclair and Dara O’Briain.

Images: The Snow Queen illustrations by Edmund Dulac – On a Winter’s Night (L); The Snow Queen (Centre); Gerda and the Reindeer (R)

The Snow Queen: 29 November – 4 January

Simon and Sarah Reilly’s Christmas productions are always beautifully produced. The Snow Queen comes from the creative team which brought us Five Children and It and The Secret Garden. I’ve always loved the Hans Andersen story and the setting lends itself to the most spectacular sets and costumes.

The tale of the two children separated by the wicked Snow Queen and Gerda’s quest to rescue Kay, with the help of the little robber girl and the reindeer along the way, is heartwarming and magical. It has inspired generations of artists such as Edmund Dulac, Kay Nielson, HJ Ford and Nika Goltz.

The contemporary British artist Christian Birmingham has also illustrated The Snow Queen. Alongside Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo O.B.E., he won the Whitbread (now Costa) Children’s Book of the Year, the Smarties Book Prize and the Red House Children’s Book Award, and his work has been exhibited at the Mall Galleries and The New English Art Club.

Images: The Snow Queen illustrations by Nika Goltz

“Retelling classic stories in a beautiful and uplifting way”

Co-director of Theatre at the Tabard Sarah Reilly told The Chiswick Calendar:

“We love putting together our Christmas shows at the Tabard. We like to offer an alternative to pantomime in retelling classic stories in a beautiful and uplifting way that’s a little different from the raucousness of other big Christmas shows.

“As parents ourselves, we’re keen to produce plays that our daughter will enjoy, but also something that we can bring our parents to, so we make sure it has something for every generation (although we do recommend it for children 6+).

“Hans Christian Andersen’s story of The Snow Queen appealed to us not just because it’s a timeless story of triumph over adversity, good vs evil, but also because the cast of interesting and quirky characters gave us an opportunity to have a lot of fun putting the show together.

“It is our tradition here to stick as faithfully to the original story as a theatrical adaptation will allow, so those familiar with the book will recognise all of the key elements and characters, Reindeer included. As it’s a magical fantasy story, our setting is not in a particular place or time, but the show has a cosy and traditional aesthetic, drawing inspiration from the many beautiful illustrations of the story.”

Images: The Snow Queen illustrations by Christian Birmingham

Fire at the pub throws a spanner in the rehearsals

Theatre at the Tabard’s production opens on schedule on Friday 29 November, despite a fire at the pub on Thursday afternoon (21 November) when member of staff witnessed smoke coming out of one of the electrical cupboards in the pub accommodation area, prompting an immediate evacuation of the building.

READ ALSO: Fire at The Tabard pub & theatre sparks evacuation

The Tabard pub and theatre ‘would like to thank everyone who attended the scene and supported them to get back up and running quickly, particularly London Fire Brigade and St Michael and All Angels Church for offering a warm place to shelter and enabling the theatre’s rehearsal to continue.’

Images: The Snow Queen illustrations by HJ Ford

Half price tickets for The Chiswick Calendar’s readers

Holders of a Chiswick Calendar Club Card will be able to book tickets for The Snow Queen on Friday 29 November at 5pm / Tuesday 3 December at 5pm / Wednesday 4 December at 7pm / Thursday 5 December at 5pm.

See how to access the discount here: Theatre at the Tabard Club Card offer

Book tickets in the usual way: The Snow Queen

The Magician who stole Christmas: Tuesday 17 December

Theatre at the Tabard are good at finding bafflingly amazing magicians for their live Christmas magic shows. This year’s show will be from Alex Sprackling who styles himself as ‘The Cheeky Trickster’:

‘A master of sleight of hand, confidence tricks, and pickpocket magic, whose charisma and witty persona make him a standout entertainer across the UK and the Channel Islands.

‘Over the past decade, Alex has crafted a unique style of performance blending jaw-dropping magic with light-hearted trickery, often taking guests by surprise with his audacious, yet humorous, ability.’

He’s been doing magic for 20 years he told The Chiswick Calendar, essentially pickpocketing, but giving the stuff back again, and card sharping.

Alex Sprackling

“I’m one of the good guys. I didn’t learn my craft at Wormwood Scrubs, no, I’ve just always had an interest in old fashioned magic and loved films like The Sting (1973), Shade (2003) and The Prestige (2006).”

He has been awarded the Silver Star by the Magic Circle for his two rubber band trick, awarded for both presentation and technical ability, which makes him one of the ‘inner’ Magic Circle.

He mainly does this at weddings and parties. He has presented stage shows, but this is his first Christmas show, he told me.

“It will be old school magic with a twist,” suitable for ages 12 and upwards.

Book tickets: The Magician Who Stole Christmas

Image: Paul Kerensa

Paul Kerena’s History of Christmas: Thursday 19 December

Paul Kerensa’s History of Christmas show follows his book of the same name, taking us through the history from the pre-Christian midwinter festival days through the debate about when Christ’s birth actually took place – ‘Perhaps it’s irrelevant anyway, about as useful as knowing Jesus’ shoe size’ – to the later Victorian and 20th Century additions.

He raises the whole ‘Was Mary a virgin?’ debate, pointing out that Isaiah’s Hebrew word for ‘virgin’ – almah – can also be translated as ‘young woman’, moving swiftly on to school natvity plays.

Emma Thompson’s character in the film Love Actually questions whether there was really more than one lobster at the nativity scene. Paul questions whether there was even a donkey. But before all your illusions are shattered, he does stress that this is history “with a light touch.”

Paul Kerensa

Paul started out as a stand-up comedian and comedy writer. His book on the history of Christmas came out in 2917, praised by such figures as Chris Evans and Jeremy Vine. He now considers himself “more of an amateur cultural historian,” he told The Chiswick Calendar.

It is interesting to read which traditons were added in which centuries. By the Victorian period we already had Santaa, carols, tinsel, mince pied and Christmas pudding, the Christmas tree and mistelto, he writes. The Victorians added the turkey dinner and the fairy on the top of the tree amongst other innovations.

How did Washington Irving, Prince Albert and Charles Dickens contribute to our Christmas traditions? Find out by booking tickets to see his show on Thursday 19 December, and be prepared to take part in community singing and games.

Book tickets: A History of Christmas with Paul Kerensa

Images: Jenny Eclair; Dara Ó Briain

Jenny Eclair and Dara Ó Briain – trying out new material

Jenny Eclair and Dara Ó Briain also started out as stand-up comedians, at least Jenny Eclair had stints as a life model and punk poetess before she won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1995 – the first woman to do so – but I’d say that was a variation on the theme.

Dara Ó Briain could have been a scientist, since his degree was in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, but decided instead to go into comedy and entertainment. Science’s loss but our gain. Both will be trying out new material at the Tabard before Christmas:

Jenny Eclair on Sunday 1 December at 5pm, Sunday 8 December at 5pm, Sunday 5 January at 3pm and Sunday 12 January at 5pm.

Book tickets: Jenny Eclair

Dara O’Briain on Tuesday 3 and Tuesday 10 December

Book tickets: Dara O’Briain

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