ONE of Inverclyde's best loved festive shows is back at the Beacon Arts Centre in the lead up to Christmas.
A Christmas Carol: A Radio Play on Stage, by local theatre company No Nonsense Productions returns for another season.
Local producer, director and actor Kevin Jannetts has a long tradition of helping local people making memories at Christmas, having staged shows like It's A Wonderful Life: A Radio Play, since the days of the Arts Guild.
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This year the play, set in a radio broadcasting studio, will capture the spirit of Christmas.
Kevin said: "We are delighted to be back again this year. A Christmas Carol is hugely popular.
"The audiences love it, and we sold out last year. There are people who come back every year to see it.
"A Christmas Carol: A Radio Play on Stage is also by the amazing playwright Tony Palermo, who wrote It's A Wonderful Life: A Radio Play on Stage.
"But it is a smaller cast and works well for us."
Kevin is also taking A Christmas Carol to Kilmardinny House in East Dunbartonshire.
The Dickens-inspired plays bring classic characters Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim alive as the audience watch a play performed as a 1950s radio broadcast.
Throughout the show, the production features radio actor characters, live sound effects and an original score.
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It was originally performed at Beacon Arts Centre in 2019, and in 2020, with pandemic restrictions in place, was filmed at the Beacon, broadcast online and provided for free to local care homes.
No Nonsense Productions first put on the Christmas play It's A Wonderful Life: A Radio Play on Stage back in 2011 in the old Greenock Arts Guild.
They were among the last to perform there, along with the Greenock Players on the main stage and the youth theatre.
Kevin has previously produced, directed and performed in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ during an eight year run.
His radio play adaptations also include ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’, ‘Dracula’, ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Para Handy’.
Kevin is also the director of youth theatre company Kayos, who performed Dracula in the Old West Kirk as part of the Galoshans Festival.
He also put on Frankenstien: A Radio Play on Stage for the Galoshans festival in the Beacon.
‘A Christmas Carol: A Radio Play on Stage’ features a cast of four favourites: Felix O’Brien who plays Mr Vivian Bickford-Smith, Stewart Phillips, who plays Sir John Montgomery-McMillan, Leonna McGilligan as Miss Maeve Johnson and Ian Sommerville as Mr John Laurie.
It will be performed in the Beacon Arts Centre over four nights from Monday, December 16 to Thursday, December 19 at 7.30pm, with an additional matinee at 2.30pm on the Thursday.
Tickets are priced £15 (£13 concessions), and are available on the Beacon Arts Centre website (beaconartscentre.co.uk/whats-on).
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