Just as Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, so Barton is set to be visited by versions of a Christmas Carol past, present and future over the next few weeks.  To keep the people of Barton interested and on their toes, each one is performed in a completely different medium.  There’s a faithful Dickensian style reading, a dramatic performance bringing the best talent of present day Barton together and an inspired jazz suite that moves the old classic forward into the future.

To get you in the mood:  Christmas Festival – Barton, November 26

The Christmas festival on Saturday November 26 will prepare us for the Christmassy things to come, just as Jacob Marley did for Mr. Scrooge.  Here, the Christmas season really arrives in Barton, with festive celebrations throughout the middle of town during the day. At 3 pm Father Christmas will be leading the Community Parade through the streets followed at 5 pm by the Lantern Parade.  The Christmas tree lights will be lit, there’ll be lots to fill your stockings with, and the eerie beauty of the Alice in Wonderland themed lanterns will be something for the memory bank as well as the photo album.

Christmas Future: A Jazz Christmas Carol – Ropery Hall, December 3

Now here’s something you won’t have seen in the past, a present-day innovation that takes the traditional story of salvation into the future.  It’s the A Christmas Carol jazz suite, written by Alan Barnes and performed by the Alan Barnes Octet.

Interwoven with readings from the book, music from eight musical virtuosos makes the plot come alive as each instrument takes the role of a character in the book.  Listen as the bouncy, cheery clarinet of ever optimistic Bob Cratchit counterpoints Ebenezer’s dark and dense baritone sax.

Christmas Present:  A Christmas Carol Stage Adaption – Joseph Wright Hall, December 5 – 7

A real Christmas present indeed!  This version of A Christmas Carol brings the funny side of the great classic to the fore, with music, humour and brilliant acting abound.  Created by Barton’s own West End actor, Paul Tate and performed by the Friends at Barton drama group, this twist on the story stays true to the important aspects of the original while bringing a new joyful side to proceedings.

In the words of Mr. Tate: “Ghosts, songs, laughs, and tickets only £5!!!  What more could you ask for?!!!”

Christmas Past:  Faithful reading of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol– Ropery Hall, December 17

Charles Dickens’s novel isn’t one of the most well-known Christmas stories in history for no reason.  Like all the best works of old, the words have a certain ring to them that can only be appreciated when the book is read aloud.  A Christmas Carol was the only work that Mr. Dickens performed readings of, and it led the author to say that “The success was most wonderful and prodigious – perfectly overwhelming and astounding altogether!”

Now, actor/reader John O’Connor and director Peter Craze bring us as close to the heady heights of Dickens’s original readings as is possible today.