The Morpeth Carol
A play by Timothy X Atack directed by Tanuja Amarasuriya
A housing estate on the edge of some un-named northern city in Britain, late on Christmas eve: 9 year old Harry leaves his rundown home to find a dilapidated sled crash-landed at the end of the road, with dead and dying reindeer lying around the wreckage, and a scary-looking guy in oily rags trying to clean up the mess, finishing off the fatally wounded animals with a shotgun.
Is this Santa? He certainly seems to have many gifts to deliver. But he speaks in an unidentifiable accent and doesn’t appear jolly in the slightest. Harry resolves to help this knackered, disillusioned man: to do a job Harry doesn’t understand, and to get to a place Harry doesn’t know.
A cracked fable in the mould of Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam. It’s a bedtime story, told by actors reading to you in the dark, with an intricate and immensely detailed web of sound effects, played live like a musical instrument: footsteps on the snow, the wind on the moors, shotguns, petrol stations and sporadic violence.
Originally presented at Bristol Old Vic, The Morpeth Carol was later adapted and produced for BBC Radio 4 (directed by Marc Beeby) and won the award for best drama at the 2014 Radio Academy Awards.
“Sometimes a piece of performance is so right that it makes you feel glad to be alive and in possession of senses. The Morpeth Carol is such a piece."
Venue Magazine
“Brilliantly written and performed, The Morpeth Carol is a unique and twisted rendition of the traditional Christmas tale"
Bristoltheatrereview.com
Cast & Credits:
HARRY Adam Peck
YOUNG HARRY Malcolm Hamilton
THE MAN Joe Shire
MUM/YVONNE Jessica Macdonald
DAD Timothy X Atack
Additional background voices Alex Bradley, Nina Wyllie, Catherine Swingler
Written by Timothy X Atack Directed by Tanuja Amarasuriya Sound Design by Timothy X Atack Designed by Tanuja Amarasuriya Production & Technical Team Barnaby Meats, Luke Murray, Jay Costello Production Photography by Paul Blakemore Original Artwork by Alex Bertram-Powell.
Developed and produced through Bristol Old Vic’s Ferment programme.
