11/10
This is the first performance of a brand new show by acclaimed playwright and singer Clare Norburn, her company, The Telling, and BAFTA nominated director Nicholas Renton. Norburn grew up in Hove, attending Brighton and Hove High School in the 1980s, and chose Ralli Hall to be the first stop of a mini tour because of this and also that Brighton was a favourite holiday destination for Charles Dickens. The play sees Dickens re-cast as Scrooge in his classic tale, A Christmas Carol, with his past, present and future presented by the two women he mistreated, his wife Catherine and his mistress, actress Ellen (Nelly) Ternan, who was only 19 when the 45 year-old writer approached her. This cautionary tale aims to empower and give a voice to the women in Dickens’ life who were denied an opportunity to give their side of the story at the time.
