A Christmas Carol - Old Vic

A Christmas Carol - Old Vic description

Welcome back, Scrooge! A Christmas Carol returns to The Old Vic for 2025.

Charles Dickens' festive ghost story A Christmas Carol is a legend, and this version from Matthew Warchus is a masterpiece. An acclaimed production on stage at The Old Vic for the ninth year running, it still draws huge crowds even though it was originally only meant to be a one-off.

An award-winning production adapted by Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Netflix's Adolescence), it's the capital's longest-running annual version of the 1843 Dickens classic, which never fails to thrill. One of those magical shows that keep on getting better year by year, it breaks box office records every time. But this is more than entertainment. It has a warm heart, too. Since the debut in 2017 the show has raised almost £2 million globally to fight food poverty and deprivation. In 2024/25 the production raised a record-breaking £235,000 for Waterloo Foodbank. It won five Tony Awards on Broadway, toured the USA, and delighted audiences in Melbourne, Australia.

The story goes like this. Ebeneezer Scrooge is a mean-hearted, miserly old man with a horrible temper, a sharp tongue and a hatred of Christmas. But when he's visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley, draped in clanking chains, who introduces him to the terrifying spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, Scrooge is transformed into a gentler, nicer man.

In the past the role of Scrooge has been played by John Simm from TV's Life on Mars and Grace, Christopher Eccleston AKA Doctor Who, Owen Teale, and Stephen Mangan. This time around, it stars Paul Hilton (The Inheritance, Lady Macbeth, Slow Horses). There's set and costume design by Rob Howell. The composer and arranger is Christopher Nightingale, the lighting comes from Hugh Vanstone and the sound is by Simon Baker.

If past seasons are anything to go by, A Christmas Carol tickets will sell out fast, billed as one of the best Christmas shows you'll ever see. Prepare the family for a truly enchanting evening!

Playing at Old Vic Theatre

103 The Cut, London, SE1 8NB GB (venue info)

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