Get ready for a festive fright this Christmas…
As York actor James Swanton is bringing back his ghostly Dickensian tales for Christmas – in solo renditions of A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Haunted Man.
Ghost Stories for Christmas will take place at York Medical Society, Stonegate, on selected dates between Monday 27 November and Monday 11 December.
The show will then transfer to London’s Charles Dickens Museum in the run-up to Christmas.
“I’m starting and finishing my run in York a little earlier than usual,” said James, “mainly because there’s been such demand for the shows in London.
“But York’s winding alleyways and tumbledown buildings are so beautifully suited to Dickens that it would have been inconceivable to strike it from my schedule.”
There will be six performances of A Christmas Carol, with The Chimes and The Haunted Man – “both lesser-known but fascinating follow-ups” – having two performances each.
This won’t be your only chance to see James this festive season, as he will also be starring in Mark Gatiss’ annual BBC Ghost Story for Christmas. This year it’s Lot No. 249, Gatiss’ retelling of an Arthur Conan Doyle short story, in a cast led by Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) and Freddie Fox (White House Farm).
The precise broadcast time is still to be announced.
James has previously worked with Mark Gatiss in the 70th anniversary live performance of The Quatermass Experiment at Alexandra Palace in London – and it was Mark himself who asked James to be a part of the BBC film.
“Obsessed with the Gothic as I am, it was a dream fulfilled to become a part of this great tradition,” said James.
“Gatiss is steeped in Conan Doyle, and his adaptation is at once gratifyingly faithful and wickedly surprising. I’m encased in a particularly ghoulish make-up by Dave Elsey, who won the Oscar for The Wolfman. And I do the most dreadful things to Kit Harington!
“I’m tremendously excited about it all.”
Don’t miss your chance to see James Swanton bring the spirit of Charles Dickens to life this Christmas.
“I look forward to gathering people together for some heart-warming storytelling – traditional to the bones, but speaking to us just as powerfully as it did 180 years ago.”
Tickets are £15, with concession tickets at £7.50, and are available via the York Theatre Royal website.