Theatre Royal presents 'Where's Santa' - A Magical Christmas Cabin in Charter Square this Christmas
Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds is delighted to announce that they are partnering with arc Shopping Centre in Bury St Edmunds this year to create a magical Christmas Cabin in the centre of Charter Square in which they will be telling a traditional Christmas tale.
From 2 to 24 December, Theatre Royal will open up their new Christmas Cabin. It will be a beautiful Nordic cabin and this year’s Christmas story, performed within the cabin, will be ‘Where’s Santa?’, a 20-minute, magical, captivating performance.
Christmas is almost here, but there’s a problem… Santa is missing!
Älva, Santa’s Chief Elf, invites you into Santa’s living room to help search for clues, find the Jolly Old Elf and rescue Christmas!
Where’s Santa? is perfect for children aged 2 to 7. Each performance accommodates 12 children and allows them to meet Santa – but only if they can find him!
Where’s Santa is bought to life by two professional actors, Terry Molloy as Santa and Hatty Ashton as Älva.
Radio 4 listeners may recognise the voice of East Anglian based actor, Terry Molloy as Mike Tucker from The Archers – a role he has played since 1974. On television and Audio Drama, Terry is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the evil genius ‘Davros’, Creator of The Daleks and nemesis of Doctor Who in the BBC TV series. Playing the jolly man himself, Terry will make the perfect Santa and looks forward to meeting all the children of Bury St Edmunds who visit the Christmas Cabin – when they find him!
Local actor Hatty Ashton will be playing Älva, Santa’s trusty Elf. She will encourage the children to join her in looking for clues around the cabin to help find Santa! Hatty’s love of theatre began in her school days with Suffolk Young Peoples Theatre and has grown exponentially since then- all the way to RADA! Hatty is no stranger to Theatre Royal, having understudied Fairy, Tommy the Cat and Dick Whittington in the 2017 pantomime Dick Whittington and Fairy, Evil Fairy and Princess in the 2018 pantomime, Sleeping Beauty. When Hatty is not on stage or in the garden with her chickens she has taken to writing rhyming retellings of local history. Her first two books There’s a Head in My Bed and Forkbeard and The Ghost King follow some of the many legends that surround the martyred King Edmund of East Anglia.
Theatre Royal’s Artistic Director, Owen Calvert-Lyons is excited to present this new Christmas story, “In Bury St Edmunds, we are renowned for our fantastic pantomime, but this year we wanted to go even further and create something special for the younger children in the heart of the town centre - a theatrical twist on meeting Santa. When children step into our Christmas Cabin they will be transported to a magical place – Santa’s living room! They will help Älva, Santa’s Elf, find Santa and discover along the way which pictures he has on the wall, what wallpaper he has chosen and even what his slippers look like!”
arc Shopping Centre are proud to be working with Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds to provide funding for this exciting project.
Allan Hassell, Centre Manager at arc Shopping Centre said, “We’re delighted to be working with Theatre Royal and to provide the platform for their marvellous and unique performance for younger visitors to Charter Square. I’m sure it will be a tremendous event for the theatre and Bury St Edmunds!”
Where’s Santa is supported by Bury St Edmunds Town Council.
Greg Luton Town Clerk said “The Town Council is delighted to support the efforts of the Theatre Royal. Their projects are always imaginative and fun and this one is no exception. Christmas is such a happy time and we think this idea will be fun for residents and draw more people into the town centre to contribute to the visitor economy as well. It’s a fantastic effort.”
Tickets for this magical Christmas performance will go on sale on Monday 10 October at 10am. www.theatreroyal.org. Admission is by pre-booked tickets only.
Theatre Royal is sponsored by Jaynic.
BOOKING INFORMATION
Tickets are on sale now, at the Box Office, call 01284 769505, or book online at theatreroyal.org
Tickets are £8 each.