Theatregoers who are keen on Dickens face a joyful December.
Almost wherever one looks, A Christmas Carol is being staged - not least Dolly Parton's Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol, which the show's star, Robert Bathurst, writes about on page 37 of this issue.
The Royal Shakespeare Company is doing A Christmas Carol in Stratfordupon-Avon. London's Old Vic is doing a production. And Deborah Warner has scheduled it at the Ustinov Theatre in Bath. Sir Nicholas Hytner has recruited Simon Russell Beale for a version at his Bridge Theatre.
Further adaptations are to be had this year in Kingston upon Thames, Windsor, Bristol, Doncaster, Coventry, Exmouth, Chesterfield, Woking, Portsmouth, Wilmslow, Salisbury, Crewe, Liverpool, Bolton and Buxton and at Sheffield Cathedral.
Until a decade ago, Dickens's tale of redistribution was seldom known on stage. Since then, it has become the second-most popular Christmas tale -
