A Christmas Carol

The Shakespeare North Playhouse is inspired by Prescot’s historic connections to William Shakespeare.

The stunning new venue, home to the only 17th-century style timber theatre outside London and anticipated to attract 140,000 visitors a year, opened its doors to the public with a joyful weekend of free festivities in July. Housed inside a modern new energy efficient building, the venue also offers a fully accessible outdoor performance garden, exhibition gallery, 60-seater studio theatre, learning centre, exhibition and events spaces, and a café and bar with outdoor piazza.

As the Liverpool Echo reported recently, quoting Knowsley MP George Howarth, “Prescot was home to the only free-standing, purpose-built theatre outside London in the Elizabethan period, and there's evidence some of Shakespeare's earliest plays were performed in Prescot. Our GCSE students have had a wonderful trip to Shakespeare Northern Playhouse today to watch a retelling of the classic A Christmas Carol.

The tale, written by Charles Dickens, follows the lessons taught to a miserly Mr Scrooge over the course of one night as he is visited by three spirits of Christmas past, present and future. At the heart of it, a story about the importance of family and community. After the show we had dinner together and talked about the show and GCSE English exams.