Ultimate family show: A Christmas Carol comes to The Civic
“IT’S my favourite story in the world”, beams Aaron Monaghan of Livin’ Dred Theatre Co, who are thrilled to announce the return of their critically acclaimed production of Charles Dickens much-loved story ‘A Christmas Carol.’
Adapted for the stage and performed by multi-award-winning actors Aaron Monaghan and Bryan Burroughs, ‘A Christmas Carol’ returns for a major national tour in December 2024, following on from it’s sell-out runs in 2022 and 2023.
“Even though it’s a returning production, it’s never the same show when it comes back, as we’re always striving to improve it, make it funnier, to involve the audience more, to make the scarier bits scarier, and to really and truly earn the Christmas Spirit.” comments Bryan.
Devised straight from Dickens classic text, the actors—dressed in snazzy suits—play all the characters at breakneck speed using an array of colourful hats, scarves, and an Ikea coat rack! Playful, hilarious, heartwarming, and fun, A Christmas Carol is a triumph of physical theater and the perfect festive family day out.
The famous cautionary tale tells the story of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge as he is visited by ghosts who take him on a journey through his past, present, and future one fateful Christmas Eve.
This production is funny, slightly scary, utterly heartwarming, and features a surprise special guest appearing as Tiny Tim…
This week, we sat down with Aaron and Bryan to discuss the “ultimate family show,” which plays at the Civic from December 13-14.
This is your third year in a row taking part in this production; this is probably a walk in the park for you guys! What is it that keeps you coming back?
Aaron: It’s my favourite story in the world. It has everything in it, and it just makes me feel so overwhelmed with joy and warmth and fear and sadness.
And the style in which we perform the show is just pure imagination, physicality, and playful silliness. To get to do that in front of families and young people is just joyous, so we keep coming back every year.
Bryan: It’s an incredible story with brilliant writing that asks everything of us as performers.
We get to play multiple characters running the full gamut of human experience from happiness and joy to grief and loss, despair and doubt to belief and hope.
Plus, how else am I going to justify hanging out all day with my best friend when we’re in our 40s?
And even though it’s a returning production, it’s never the same show when it comes back, as we’re always striving to improve it, make it funnier, to involve the audience more, to make the scarier bits scarier, and to really and truly earn the Christmas spirit.
Have there been any challenges or highlights working on it so far?
Aaron: There have been times when we’ve been sick and lost our voices; there have been times when there were more people in the audience than we had seats.
Those moments we genuinely don’t know how we’re going to get through the performance. But then, every single time, something just clicks; the story and the audience literally carry us through.
There is just something literally magical about this gorgeous little piece of theatre.
Bryan: The challenge is in some ways the best part in that we push each other to keep getting better and better so that the show becomes something more and more remarkable the more we do it.
The highlights are when the audience are so on board that they gasp where we hope they’re going to gasp, where they’re achingly silent ringing the sadder moments, when the young people are truly scared of Scrooge, and of course, when they laugh and cheer at all of the fun parts.
How has the preparation differed compared to your other projects?
Bryan: We have a short hand as actors and friends that is more intuitive and felt than spoken, so it means that in other rehearsals where there might be differing styles of acting at play or barriers to communication, in “Carol”’s rehearsal room we get to where we need to get to very fast, which then opens the door for more invention, playfulness, and creative discovery.
I inherently trust Aaron as an actor and friend in my soul and so know him to be one of the most inventive, alive, spontaneous, and talented actors in the world.
It’s a joy to step on stage with him, look him in the eye, see a cheeky glint in it, and then let it rip!
Aaron: When we re-rehearse it, it’s always trying to improve moments.
We’re so familiar with the story and the show that we’ve even caught ourselves accidentally speaking each other’s lines without either of us noticing it’s happened!
We just get into a zone where the story and the words just flow. So lots of new things happen in every show.
I think we both know each other so well that we sort of know how the other moves, speaks, or even thinks! It’s a rhythmic thing or something, where we’re sort of “in sync” once we start performing.
So we try really hard to preserve that playfulness and invention and not to rehearse it too much.
What drew you to the Civic?
Bryan: It’s a lovely theater, and I’ve gotten to work on and perform a number of shows here like The Blanch and Stones in His Pockets whilst also getting to be part of a festival of solo shows with my own show, BEOWULF THE BLOCKBUSTER, so I have very fond memories of very kind and engaged audiences as well as enjoying a vast number of shows here.
Aaron: This is well agreed upon within the theatre industry.
The Civic has one of the most amazing staff in the country; everyone talks about how friendly and helpful they are, so you’re always happy to go there.
On a personal level, one of my first professional experiences was performing Alone It Stands, which toured to the Civic.
It was a really special job and a brilliant experience. Directing my wife, Clare Monnelly, in her show Charlie’s A Clepto was a real moment that gave me such a buzz. Livin’ Dred is 20 years old this year, and we’ve performed in Civic a lot in that time: one of my proudest moments was seeing The Dead School play there in the Dublin Theatre Festival.
So I’m just thrilled to be back at Civic, celebrating 20 years of Livin’ Dred.
Do you have any special ties to Tallaght?
Bryan: Yes, an ex-girlfriend from 20 years ago who I hope hears about the show, comes to see it, and is so impressed that she is filled with regret that she let me get away.
Aaron: As a pure culchie, fresh up from the country, the first time I heard of Tallaght was when I met Emmet Kirwan when we were training to be actors at Trinity College.
It was my first day, and I felt so out of place I might as well have been on the moon. Emmet chatted to me; he spoke so fast I thought he was rapping (obviously he slagged me off for being from Cavan), but he was incredibly kind and friendly to me.
That made me feel like I could belong there. I was instantly a massive fan of Emmet Kirwan, have been since, and always will be. And that’s what I think of when I think of Tallaght!
What are your respective plans for the New Year (I understand that Bryan has a very eagerly anticipated project releasing!)?
Bryan: I’m very excited that two shows I’ve had the pleasure of directing in the recent past are getting a remount.
Tara Lovett’s ‘The Whispering Chair,’ produced by Livin’ Dred, will get a Dublin outing in the spring, and Gavin Kostick’s ‘Fight Night,’ with Aonghus Og McAnally for RISE productions, is off to New York for a run off Broadway, so that’s very exciting.
As far as acting goes, I had the pleasure and privilege of being directed by Tim Burton this summer for a part in ‘Wednesday’ series two for Netflix. I’m sworn to secrecy, but it’s going to be mind-blowing!!
Aaron: I shall be mid-preparation for a new Livin’ Dred production in 2025, which hasn’t been announced just yet…
You’ll just have to check out livindred to find out. But the thought of it is making my heart sing.
On New Years Eve itself, I will be sitting in with Clare, petting our big silly dog, thanking our lucky stars for the divine gift that is our daughter, and hopefully taking stock of another mad, mad, mad but wonderful year.
Who would you like to thank?
Bryan: The brilliant team at Livin’ Dred and Donal and everyone at The Civic for having us. It’s going to be brilliant.
Aaron: Bryan, Suzie, and Archer, who are the crew of the show; Darragh and Amy at Livin’ Dred, and our board; my wife and daughter and dog for letting me go on tour with my best friend for Christmas; all at the Civic who’ve made everything so easy; all the venues we get to visit; every single audience member who comes to see ‘A Christmas Carol’, and most specifically, our mams.
