Historic theatre celebrates new Christmas show

The Jolly Postman's artistic director Jesse Jones used to be an actor himself

An historic theatre has launched its in-house Christmas production, which runs alongside the annual pantomime.

This year’s performance at the Royal & Derngate in Northampton is an adaptation of The Jolly Christmas Postman and marks the first time since 2019 that the venue has created a Christmas show exclusively for its Royal stage.

As part of the theatre's "Made in Northampton" season, it will feature a largely local cast of professional actors and artists.

Artistic director Jesse Jones said: "I’ve always wanted to do this show, but wasn’t quite sure how to do it."

Four out of the six cast members at this year's Christmas show come from Northamptonshire

Last year, the Royal Theatre hosted a touring production of Stick Man for Christmas.

For this year's show, the theatre has assembled its own creative team and cast, with four of the six actor-musicians coming from Northamptonshire.

The set construction and costumes were made by the theatre's in-house teams.

The story follows a mail postman delivering letters by bicycle to beloved characters from traditional British children’s tales, and has been adapted from the book by Janet and Allan Ahlberg.

Mr Jones added: "It is a fun job a lot of the time. You have theories of what is going to work. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

"It's a very special moment breathing life into these things, and when you invite the audience in, that's when you really think, it's birthed and then, we start thinking about what are we doing next year."

The theatre also co-produces the Derngate's panto, which this year is Cinderella.