Clive Francis
A Christmas Carol
adapted and performed by Clive Francis

The Tabard Theatre, Chiswick
20th to 24th December 2023

TICKETS: £20/£17 concessions – performances 20th to 23rd December. £23.50/£19.50 concessions – performance on 24th December.
Returning after a sell-out run last year, actor Clive Francis returns to the Tabard this Christmas with his acclaimed adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic .

Francis plays the misanthropic Ebenezer Scrooge in this delightful one-man show for family audiences.

Inspired by Dickens’ first reading and performance of A Christmas Carol in December 1853, Clive Francis re-enacts this festive masterpiece with words penned by Dickens, while playing every notable character from the original, haunting story.
★★★★ “Performance of his career” Daily Telegraph
★★★★ “Touches the heart” Independent
★★★★ “Wondrous old skinflint” Daily Mail
★★★★ “Spell-binding” The Sunday Times
★★★★ “Clive Francis’ storytelling is enthralling a if it had only this minute sprung to life” The Irish Times
★★★★ “Clive Francis’s Scrooge is the best!” Birmingham Mail
AN INTERVIEW WITH CLIVE FRANCIS
TRAILER
PREVIOUS TOURS
2019
SINGAPORE
British Theatre Playhouse
77 Bukit Tinggi Road,
Singapore.
_________
2018

LONDON
St Mary’s Church
Church Street
Twickenham
TW1 3NJ
Wednesday 19 December

BIRMINGHAM
Town Hall
Sunday 23 December
__________
2017
BIRMINGHAM
Birmingham Town Hall
Sunday 17 December SOLD OUT

GUILDFORD
Mill Studio, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
Wednesday 20th December, 8pm
Thursday 21st, Friday 22nd & Saturday 23rd December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT
Sunday 24th December, 6pm SOLD OUT
Tuesday 26th December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT
__________
2016
BATH
Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal
Saturday 2nd January, 2.30pm and 7.30pm SOLD OUT
Sunday 3rd. 1.30 & 5.00pm SOLD OUT
__________
2015
RICHMOND SURREY
Orange Tree Theatre
Sunday 13th December
5pm & 7.30pm SOLD OUT

GUILDFORD
Mill Studio, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
Mon  21st December, 8pm SOLD OUT
Tues 22nd December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT
Wed  23rd December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT
Thurs 24th December, 6pm   SOLD OUT
Sat 26th December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT

LES CABANNES, FRANCE
Theatre le Columbier
Thursday 17th December 7.30pm

BIRMINGHAM
Town Hall
Sunday 20th December 8pm

GUILDFORD
Mill Studio, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
Mon  21st December, 8pm SOLD OUT
Tues 22nd December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT
Wed  23rd December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT
Thurs 24th December, 6pm   SOLD OUT
Sat 26th December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT
REVIEW DECEMBER 2022
A one-man show by Clive Francis performing A Christmas Carol at The Tabard Theatre has already sold every single seat as word got round about the quality of the performance.

He brings the story back to its original form with a re-enactment of the well known tale in which he performs all the parts in a similar way to Charles Dickens might have done at public readings of his work. The author first read A Christmas Carol to an audience in December 1853.

Clive Francis will be a familiar face to most people. The veteran actor has appeared in a host of film and TV productions across a long career from A Clockwork Orange to The Crown.

This production has been described as the performance of his career by the Daily Telegraph’s reviewer and, it is not hard to understand why, after watching him transform himself in and out of the character of Ebenezer Scrooge.

Returns only are available for the remaining performances of the show which runs for 70 minutes.

If you would like to queue for returns for the final performance on Christmas Eve at 4pm., The Tabard will be open from half an hour before the performance.

Brian Egan, ‘Chiswick4.com’

REVIEW DECEMBER 2018

★★★★★
“Clive Francis’ dynamic one-man performance ‘A Christmas Carol’ demonstrates that Charles Dickens’ iconic festive fiction has lost none of its potency or relevance for our world today”

A sparse set, free from the holly wreaths and Christmas dressings described in the 19th-century press, is decorated only through the joint imaginative efforts of Francis and his audience, his performance of a grieving Bob (Cratchit) struggling to stay composed is enough to break your heart. Francis' skill as a storyteller enables him to speak to everyone. [His] merriment is infectious, and his Christmas wishes to us all demand to be shared.

Heather Kincaid, ‘What’s On’

REVIEW DECEMBER 2018
A Christmas Carol
adapted and performed by Clive Francis
Coronet Theatre

★★★★★
“Clive Francis is spellbinding”

He singlehandedly recreates an entire Dickens novel. By turns gripping, mesmerising, haunting and very movingly he manages in 70 enthralling minutes to construct a whimsical kind of masque.

Like a solitary Beckett character, he makes us believe in whatever scene Dickens conjures up, whether its Scrooge on his own in his house, or with Bob Cratchit in the office, or watching scenes from past, present and future with the spirit of Christmas, it is all done so convincingly that we willingly suspend our disbelief. It’s a marvellous achievement. In the setting of the Coronet Theatre and with a portrait of the great man himself hovering all the while over Francis’s head it’s the nearest any of us will get to experiencing Dickens himself read A Christmas Carol.

John O’Brien - LondonTheatre1.com

★★★★★
“Francis’ conviction sees many of us craning to check that there isn’t a haunting figure lurking stage left”

‘Bah! Humbug!’ So one might say of A Christmas Carol, a story so well-known as to risk being hackneyed (indeed, this is one of several London Christmas Carols running in 2018). Despite this being a tale many audience members must know well, this one-man performance by Clive Francis still manages to surprise and move. An extremely pacey seventy-minute rendition sees us rattle through a merry cast of characters, with Francis seeming to transform before our very eyes. So speedy is the delivery that an actor with less-than-perfect diction would risk losing the audience amidst the occasional density of the Dickensian language. That the production remarkably manages to avoid mawkishness, is credit to the utter class of the staging and actor.

As a seasonal night out, this can’t be beat. What could be more festive than a viewing of the archetypal Christmas tale replete with snowy trees, flickering candles and the scent of mulled wine? The Coronet makes for the perfect setting, with its air of faded grandeur and peeling paint only adding to the ambiance.

Abi Davies – thespyinthestalls.com

Clive Francis
TOUR DATES CHRISTMAS 2022
A Christmas Carol
adapted and performed by Clive Francis
The Tabard Theatre
2 Bath Road
Chiswick
London W4 1LW
Actor Clive Francis brings his acclaimed adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic to the Tabard Theatre, Chiswick, this Christmas.

Francis plays the misanthropic Ebenezer Scrooge in this delightful one-man show for family audiences.

Inspired by Dickens’ first reading and performance of A Christmas Carol in December 1853, Clive Francis re-enacts this festive masterpiece with words penned by Dickens, while playing every notable character from the original, haunting story.

★★★★★
"Performance of his career"

Daily Telegraph

AN INTERVIEW WITH CLIVE FRANCIS
TRAILER
PREVIOUS TOURS
2019
SINGAPORE
British Theatre Playhouse
77 Bukit Tinggi Road,
Singapore.
_________
2018

LONDON
St Mary’s Church
Church Street
Twickenham
TW1 3NJ
Wednesday 19 December

BIRMINGHAM
Town Hall
Sunday 23 December
__________
2017
BIRMINGHAM
Birmingham Town Hall
Sunday 17 December SOLD OUT

GUILDFORD
Mill Studio, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
Wednesday 20th December, 8pm
Thursday 21st, Friday 22nd & Saturday 23rd December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT
Sunday 24th December, 6pm SOLD OUT
Tuesday 26th December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT
__________
2016
BATH
Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal
Saturday 2nd January, 2.30pm and 7.30pm SOLD OUT
Sunday 3rd. 1.30 & 5.00pm SOLD OUT
__________
2015
RICHMOND SURREY
Orange Tree Theatre
Sunday 13th December
5pm & 7.30pm SOLD OUT

GUILDFORD
Mill Studio, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
Mon  21st December, 8pm SOLD OUT
Tues 22nd December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT
Wed  23rd December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT
Thurs 24th December, 6pm   SOLD OUT
Sat 26th December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT

LES CABANNES, FRANCE
Theatre le Columbier
Thursday 17th December 7.30pm

BIRMINGHAM
Town Hall
Sunday 20th December 8pm

GUILDFORD
Mill Studio, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
Mon  21st December, 8pm SOLD OUT
Tues 22nd December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT
Wed  23rd December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT
Thurs 24th December, 6pm   SOLD OUT
Sat 26th December, 6pm & 8pm SOLD OUT
REVIEW DECEMBER 2018

★★★★★
“Clive Francis’ dynamic one-man performance ‘A Christmas Carol’ demonstrates that Charles Dickens’ iconic festive fiction has lost none of its potency or relevance for our world today”

A sparse set, free from the holly wreaths and Christmas dressings described in the 19th-century press, is decorated only through the joint imaginative efforts of Francis and his audience, his performance of a grieving Bob (Cratchit) struggling to stay composed is enough to break your heart. Francis' skill as a storyteller enables him to speak to everyone. [His] merriment is infectious, and his Christmas wishes to us all demand to be shared.

Heather Kincaid, ‘What’s On’

REVIEW DECEMBER 2018
A Christmas Carol
adapted and performed by Clive Francis
Coronet Theatre

★★★★★
“Clive Francis is spellbinding”

He singlehandedly recreates an entire Dickens novel. By turns gripping, mesmerising, haunting and very movingly he manages in 70 enthralling minutes to construct a whimsical kind of masque.

Like a solitary Beckett character, he makes us believe in whatever scene Dickens conjures up, whether its Scrooge on his own in his house, or with Bob Cratchit in the office, or watching scenes from past, present and future with the spirit of Christmas, it is all done so convincingly that we willingly suspend our disbelief. It’s a marvellous achievement. In the setting of the Coronet Theatre and with a portrait of the great man himself hovering all the while over Francis’s head it’s the nearest any of us will get to experiencing Dickens himself read A Christmas Carol.

John O’Brien - LondonTheatre1.com

★★★★★
“Francis’ conviction sees many of us craning to check that there isn’t a haunting figure lurking stage left”

‘Bah! Humbug!’ So one might say of A Christmas Carol, a story so well-known as to risk being hackneyed (indeed, this is one of several London Christmas Carols running in 2018). Despite this being a tale many audience members must know well, this one-man performance by Clive Francis still manages to surprise and move. An extremely pacey seventy-minute rendition sees us rattle through a merry cast of characters, with Francis seeming to transform before our very eyes. So speedy is the delivery that an actor with less-than-perfect diction would risk losing the audience amidst the occasional density of the Dickensian language. That the production remarkably manages to avoid mawkishness, is credit to the utter class of the staging and actor.

As a seasonal night out, this can’t be beat. What could be more festive than a viewing of the archetypal Christmas tale replete with snowy trees, flickering candles and the scent of mulled wine? The Coronet makes for the perfect setting, with its air of faded grandeur and peeling paint only adding to the ambiance.

Abi Davies – thespyinthestalls.com