Bobby gets in on Christmas Carol

Nov 30 2018 | By More

Iconic Edinburgh pooch for Lyceum Xmas show 2019

Greyfriars Bobby is to get a walkies on part in the Lyceum’s Christmas 2019 production of An Edinburgh Christmas Carol, adapted from Dickens by Tony Cownie.

The production will also be directed by Cownie, who already has a string of directing credits for the company, including his adaption of Hannah Cowley’s 1780 comedy The Belle’s Stratagem which placed it in Georgian Edinburgh and won the ensemble award at this year’s Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland.

An Edinburgh Christmas Carol will see Cownie transfer Dickens’ classic Christmas tale to Victorian Edinburgh and mix items from Edinburgh’s own history into the narrative.

Cownie says: I look forward to welcoming Lyceum audiences of all ages to Victorian Edinburgh, where the heartless Scrooge has his shop directly opposite Greyfriars Kirkyard. All the original characters are here, with the exciting addition of a very loyal, dogged and lovable neighbour – Bobby.”

The new setting seems particularly appropriate as Dickens is said to have got his inspiration for Scrooge from a stone in the Greyfriars Kirkyard to one “Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie” who was a corn merchant or “meal man” according to his inscription.

Dickens was walking in the Kirkyard in 1841 just before giving a lecture and miss-read the inscription as “mean man” – and his wondering over why someone should have such a virulent memorial lead to the creation of Scrooge.

He would no doubt appreciate Cownie’s changing of the names of the three mysterious ghosts who are sent to show Scrooge the true meaning of Christmas to Lang Syne, Nouadays and Ayont.

humbug

It is more than the supposed provenance of Scrooge’s name which makes the change of setting so appropriate, according to Cownie.

He says: “The Scottish establishment, and the Kirk in particular, had a very Scrooge-like attitude towards Christmas in the nineteenth century so it was not just Ebenezer that considered it all a humbug – Edinburgh has definitely learned a thing or two from it’s own ghosts of Christmas past.”

Tickets for An Edinburgh Christmas Carol are on sale now, with this year’s prices held until the end of January. Bookings for Schools performances open 18 February 2019.

The theatre’s 2018 production of Wendy and Peter Pan, an adaptation by Ella Hickson of JM Barrie’s book, runs from tonight, Friday 30 November 2018, to Saturday 5 January 2019.

Listings

An Edinburgh Christmas Carol
Lyceum Theatre, Grindlay Street EH3 9AX. Phone booking: 0131 248 4848
Thursday 28 November 2019 – Saturday 4 January 2020

For tickets and details: Book here.

ENDS

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