Free And For Me

This year people think Christmas has come early.   I think the holiday season begins the day after Thanksgiving, not the day after Halloween. With that said, I have started looking for things to do in Los Angeles during Christmas. I have added going to see A Christmas Carol at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, in Santa Monica.

Don’t be fooled by the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts performance of Charles Dickens’ timeless, transformative masterpiece tale, A CHRISTMAS CAROL. This mesmerizing one-man production, performed by David Mynne from Wednesday, December 4 through Sunday, December 8, 2019, in The Wallis’ Lovelace Studio Theater, is NOT your run-of-the-mill adaptation. This production, doused with EXTRA humbug for adults (and BRAVE children ages 8+), sends audiences home remembering a cast of dozens. Directed by Simon Harvey, it has been adapted by Andrew McPherson with additional script by Harvey and Mynne. Mynne, founder of Kneehigh (Brief Encounter, The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk), which has created vigorous, popular and challenging theatre over the last 40 years, performed his extraordinary one-man Great Expectations at The Wallis in 2018 to great acclaim.

“David Mynne is an exceptional storyteller, and we are pleased to have him return to The Wallis with this beautifully detailed, intimate production,” says The Wallis’ Artistic Director Paul Crewes. “It will be among the bright lights in our holiday presentations.”

It has been a while since I have seen a one-man show production.   I sure my family is going to love it!

About the Artists:

DAVID MYNNE (Performer/Co-Adapter), based in Penzance, Cornwall, is a founding member of Kneehigh and has worked with the company as a performer, maker, and graphic designer on and off for the last 35 years. He has appeared in many of Kneehigh’s productions nationally and internationally. In 2013, he created his first solo show, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, in collaboration with director Simon Harvey to develop an original style of accessible storytelling. Since then, Mynne has toured three one-man shows: Bram Stoker’s Dracula!, Homer’s The Odyssey (Greek stuff!) and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, all with Simon as director and co-writer.

SIMON HARVEY (Director/Co-Adapter), based in Truro, Cornwall, has been a professional director for the last twenty years, with a diverse portfolio of experience which ranges from small scale rural touring to mid-scale international touring, working with theatres all over the UK, Australia and the USA. He is Artistic Director of o-region, a Cornwall-based theatre and film production company, which has produced original works since 2002. He is also an Associate Director of Kneehigh, with whom he has worked extensively with since 2004, and an Associate Artist of the Hall for Cornwall. He also lectures regularly on the Film and Theatre courses at Falmouth University. Great Expectations was Harvey’s first collaboration with David Mynne. They have gone on to produce and tour Dracula!, The Odyssey (Greek Stuff!) and A Christmas Carol. SimonHarveyDirector.com

Tickets, $25 (prices subject to change), are available at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills. To purchase tickets and for more information, please call 310-746-4000 or visit TheWallis.org/Christmas.

You do not want to miss this performance.  Hurry and buy your tickets!

Happy Holidays!