Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol to be staged at Sunderland's historic Masonic Lodge

Theatre Space North East performance of A Christmas Carol at Sunderland Masonic Lodge with, Claire Lewis, Matthew Nicholson with Marley, Calum Bruce and Caroline Liversidge.

Dickensian classic A Christmas Carol is being staged in Wearside as part of a tour of quirky venues in the run up to the big day.

The Sunderland leg of the tour will take place at the Wearside Masonic Lodge, in Burdon Road.

Visitors to the historic Grade II-Listed temple will be able to experience the ghosts of Christmas past, present and Christmas yet to come when the famous tale is staged from December 21-23.

Theatre Space North East performance of A Christmas Carol at Sunderland Masonic Lodge with Calum Bruce, Matthew Nicholson with Marley, Claire Lewis and Caroline Liversidge with Lodge chair Frank Vout

It’s part of a regional tour by Theatre Space North East, which will also see the story being performed on the same spot in Durham as Charles Dickens did more than 150 years ago.

The Sunderland-based theatre company are teaming up with Newcastle-based puppetry company, Life and Limb Puppetry, to stage the show throughout December at locations including Newcastle Castle Keep, Alnwick Castle, Durham Town Hall, West Auckland Manor House and Sunderland’s Wearside Masonic Lodge.

It comes 161 years after A Christmas Carol’s creator, Charles Dickens sat in Durham Town Hall to share the story with a new North East audience and the production team say they are thrilled to be bringing the timeless tale back to the location in 2019.

A spokesman said: “The themes of the story are all the more pertinent in 2019, with food bank usage and homelessness on the rise. The production last year raised over £1000 in donations for local charities and foodbanks and will once again conduct collections at each performance for those less fortunate this Christmas.”

Theatre Space North East are an award-winning team based in a community-funded studio in Sunniside who’ve become most well-known for their summer Plays in the Parks seasons which sees Shakespearean plays and more staged in green spaces in Sunderland and at Alnwick Castle.

Tickets are available from https://arctix.co.uk/

A Christmas Carol will be staged at the following times:

*December 5-9 at Newcastle Castle

*December 10-11 at Alnwick Castle

*December 12 at West Auckland Manor

*December 14-15 at Scarborough Town Hall

*December 17-19 at York Merchant Taylor’s Hall

*December 20 at Durham Town Hall

*December 21-23 at the Wearside Masonic Lodge