Top Picks
Must-see theatre shows in Cornwall this Christmas
Here are our top picks of Christmas theatre for all the family to enjoy.
This Christmas there are LOADS of fantastic theatre shows coming to venues near you. From hilarious pantos to Dickensian classics, Cornish favourites and immersive experiences, how will you choose?!
The What’s On team will be covering some of these shows in December, bringing to you special previews and features to help you decide. Keep an eye on our online magazine and social media pages for your festive inspiration.
1. Ha-Hum-Ah Theatre present: Oh No It Isn’t!
Tue 26th November — Sun 22nd December, 2019
The Old Library in Bodmin & touring Cornish venues
They’re the best of sisters onstage but the worst of friends off it. It’s the final performance of Cinderella in a moth-eaten, regional theatre and backstage tensions threaten to boil over onstage. Will the egotism, one-up-manship and politics remain confined to the dressing room? Will the ugly sisters keep the professional professional and the personal personal? Will we ever find out what happened during Babes In The Wood? Recommended age 10+
2. Jack's Frosty Stories
Sat 30th November – Sun 22nd December, 2019
Various venues in Cornwall
Coppice Theatre are bringing a brand new walk about version of their popular winter storytelling show to Truro on Nov 30th and 7th Dec. Naughty Jack Frost is hiding and has taken all the Christmas cup cakes with him! Disaster! Join a host of Jack’s friends and help search for him across the town, as they tell you wonderfully wintery tales along the way.
Or enjoy the original show at Grampound Community Hall (Dec 1), The Poly in Falmouth (Dec 14) or The Acorn in Penzance (Dec 22).
3. A Cornish Carol
Weds 4th – Sat 28th December, 2019
Various venues across Cornwall
Christmas is upon us and business is booming in Ebenezer Scrooge’s Pre-Packaged “Proper” Pasty Production Company. Costs are low, profit is high and the money is pouring in. What’s that? The staff are exhausted? They want a day off? They can barely afford to eat? ‘Bah, humbug! You don’t get nothing for free in this life.’
Over the course of one miserable, mizzly, Cornish night, join miserly Scrooge and a gaggle of ghostly ghouls who force him to revisit his PAST(y), explore his (Ker)NOW and decide if his FUTURE will Come-to-Good.
4. Steamed
Sat 7th December, 2019
The Tolmen Centre, Constantine
Steam ships, steam trains, steamed puddings, hilarious comedy, astonishing drama, endearing orphans and perhaps the odd catchy music hall number! This December join Closer Each Day Company aboard Brunel’s SS Great Britain for something distinctly Dickensian and entirely improvised, created on the spot from YOUR suggestions!
5. Rogue Theatre: Winter Wood
Sat 7th – Mon 30th December, 2019
Tehidy Woods, North Cliffs
Rogue Theatre returns to the wilds of Tehidy Woods this December with their enchanting winter celebration. Follow the path deeper into the Winter Wood land of myth, legend and festive magic as Old Man Winter’s world of stories, faeries and winter wonders comes life.
Created by Cornwall’s award winning immersive and highly visual Rogue Theatre, Winter Wood is an adventure for families and those who still believe in magic.
6. The Santa Show
Mon 9th December, 2019
The Regal Theatre, Redruth
There’s nothing Santa loves more than starting the countdown to Christmas by opening the windows of his special Christmas calendar. But when he tries to begin the countdown this year, disaster – the calendar is broken and all the magical goodies inside have gone missing! Santa needs them to get ready for Christmas, but how is he going to get everything back in time?
Join Dotty the Elf, Dasher the Reindeer, Jack Frost and Pompom the Penguin in a fun, festive, musical adventure to help fix the Christmas calendar and get Santa’s Christmas Countdown started – plus remember to bring your Christmas letter to post in Santa’s special post box!
7. Sleeping Beauty
11th – 14th December, 2019
Sterts Theatre, Upton Cross
Maleficent, Queen of the fairies puts a curse on the baby princess Aurora, but is Maleficent really as evil as the fairy tales suggest? Will Aurora outsmart the Goblin King? Will the Prince ever find his way, and will the love of a mother for her child be strong enough to break the curse and save Sleeping Beauty? Kick off the festive season in style with this brand new magical pantomime packed full of laughs, songs, adventure and maybe the odd dragon!
8. Aladdin
Thu 12th — Sat 14th December, 2019
Lane Theatre, Newquay
Oddsocks are returning to Lane Theatre this December with a fabulous new pantomime. Join Aladdin, Jasmine and the genie in Agrabah for a familiar story with a modern twist…
9. Christmas. Time.
Thurs 12th – Thurs 26th December, 2019
Various venues across Cornwall
Charlie and Toby are feeling low, and why wouldn’t they? It’s Christmas Day and they’re serving time at Her Majesty’s pleasure. But why shouldn’t they be having a Merry Christmas in spite of their incarceration?
Join them on a fantastical adventure through Dickens, pantomime, musical, Christmas dinner and Christmas films! See as they build a wonderfully Merry Christmas around them with songs, snowmen and lots of laughs in this truly festive show that puts the ‘cell’ firmly back in ‘celebration’!
10. Miracle Theatre: Treasure Island
Fri 13th December, 2019 — Sun 5th January, 2020
Princess Pavilion, Falmouth
Cornwall’s award winning Miracle Theatre is back at Princess Pavilion this December with an epic swashbuckling fun-soaked adventure story full of music and laughter for the Christmas holidays. In this new version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s timeless classic, our heroine Hawkins tackles pirates and battles shipwrecked mariners to discover a fabulous hoard of buried treasure – as well as a big barrel of courage she didn’t know she had!
11. A Christmas Carol
Sat 14th December, 2019
Tolmen Centre Constantine
Globally acclaimed for his smash hit solo works such as Under Milk Wood and Animal Farm, Guy Masterson now brings us Dickens’ classic festive fable. Bringing the entire story to life in a magical multi-character performance, Dickens’ extraordinary myriad of personalities – from Scrooge to Marley, Mrs Fezziwig to Tiny Tim – are stunningly animated in Masterson’s inimitable, multi award winning style.
12. The Mousehole Cat
Sat 14th — Tue 31st December, 2019
Solomon Browne Memorial Hall, Mousehole
A magical puppet and live action production of Antonia Barber’s classic children’s story, The Mousehole Cat, is performed in the heart of Mousehole alongside the village’s annual Christmas illuminations in the Solomon Browne Memorial Hall.
Based on a well-known Cornish legend Antonia Barber’s uniquely heart warming story of the friendship between a fearless fisherman and his devoted cat is sure to warm the cockles of your heart almost as much as an ‘efty portion of stargazy pie!
13. David Mynne: A Christmas Carol
Tuesday 17th – Monday 23rd December, 2019
St Austell, Truro & Penzance
Joy to all mankind? Bah! Spend an evening in the company of a mean, tight-fisted, squeezing, grasping, clutching old miser. Bah! Watch horrified as Ebenezer Scrooge is haunted by four creepy ghosts(wooo-oooh) each one more terrifying than the last. Bah!
This is Dickens’ original words with added silliness. Silliness? Bah! Celebrate the festive season with a mesmerising one-man performance of Charles Dickens’ timeless, transformative story: A Christmas Carol. Bah! Humbug!
14. Sleeping Beauty
Sat 21st — Mon 30th December, 2019
St Ives Theatre, St Ives
Join Kidz R Us for a magical re-telling of this famous fairy tale and bucket loads of laughs! Our story begins as the King and Queen are blessed with the birth of a daughter, Princess Rose. Good Fairy Lilac and her little fairy helpers bestow virtuous gifts on the royal baby, but not before Bad Witch Hazel arrives to put a curse on her: “Before midnight on her 16th birthday, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die!” The King orders all spinning wheels to be destroyed, whilst Fairy Lilac alters the Witch’s spell so Rose will not die but fall asleep for 100 years.
Nurse Hettie Harpic, Muddles, the idiotic Palace handyman and two hapless heralds, Fetch and Carrie, ensure the laughs come thick and fast as Rose slowly grows up. But Witch Hazel finds a way to trick our friends just before the evil curse expires. Will Rose prick her finger and, if so, what will she find when she re-awakens after 100 years?