Author: Simon Edwin

It’s Christmas Eve in Victorian London. The fog creeps through every chink and keyhole. The flickering candlelight dances around the walls of the houses and a Not So Tiny Tim shivers around an even tinier fire. Meanwhile the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is getting ready for bed when he hears a clank clank clank of chains; a sound that resounds throughout the house like thunder. It’s going to be a long night…

The inimitable Le Navet Bete (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Robin Hood, The Jungle Book, Dracula: The Bloody Truth) are back for their seventh Christmas in Plymouth with their hilarious and unique take on the classic A Christmas Carol, co-produced with Barbican Theatre.

A festive physical comedy treat for the whole family featuring all the much loved Dickensian characters plus a few extra for good measure – it is Christmas after all!

A Christmas Carol runs from 14^th December 2017 to 7^th January 2018.

For more information and to buy tickets visit www.barbicantheatre.co.uk

The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company will be bringing a steampunk version of Jack The Ripper to The Athenaeum for one night only.

It promises to be a dark drama based on the true story of the mysterious, unidentified serial killer who terrorised Victorian London.

Jack The Ripper will combine theories of the killer, with a steampunk adaptation, in style, music and ultimate motive.

For tickets visit www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office

With resident MC Chris Brooker leading the way, Plymouth Comedy Club returns to the theatre at The Plymouth Athenaeum.

Headliner Paul McCaffrey is a familiar face from television show Impractical Jokers as well as a myriad of stand up and panel shows.

Opening the show is Antipodean force of nature John Robertson. Completing the laughter line up is James Sherwood, one of the cleverest and sharpest comedy songwriters in the business.

And for the younger generation, Brooker, McCaffrey and Robertson will be creating a fun-filled afternoon Comedy Club for Kids.

The evening show starts at 8pm and the Comedy Club for Kids begins at 2pm.

For tickets visit www.plymouthcomedyclub.co.uk.

John was recognised as Plymouth’s ‘Long Term Volunteer of the Year’ at the Inspiring Volunteer Awards.

A long-term Rotarian, helping to serve the local community, John is a former Chairman of the Board of Governors of Montpelier School.

He was a general commissioner for the Inland Revenue and served as a board member of the Devon and Cornwall Housing Association as Chairman of Finance and Resources for five years.

At the ceremony, John was described as an ‘inspiration’.

Held at Plymouth University, the annual Inspiring Volunteer Awards was organised in partnership with Improving Lives Plymouth, The Plymouth Herald newspaper and The Hyde Park Brewery.

(John is pictured, right, with Sheila Snellgrove, Chief Executive of the Barbican Theatre, and Plymouth Athenaeum trustees Roy Hexter, left, and Richard Wilcockson)