Birmingham Stage Company return with hit production Horrible Christmas, this time swapping theatres for drive-ins…

Airports, showgrounds, racecourses and arenas will be the new home of the Horrible Histories’ Christmas show for the next two months, as audience members marvel at Car Park Panto from the comfort of their vehicles.

Steeped in humour, history and heartfelt moments, Horrible Christmas takes a trip through the roots of Christmas as we know it. “This is quite different to a lot of the Horrible Histories shows that we do,” explains Neal Foster, performer and manager at Birmingham Stage Company, which has been bringing Horrible Histories to the stage for the past 15 years.

“It’s a story written by Terry Deary, who’s also written all of the books, and it tells the tale of a bad Santa who wants to destroy Christmas because he hates it. He does so by going back to all the pivotal moments in history that made Christmas as we know it today and trying to change them: he tries to stop Charles Dickens writing A Christmas Carol, Henry VIII from having a turkey and the Nativity from happening at all. He tries to help Oliver Cromwell ban Christmas and steals the first ever Christmas present given by St Nicholas. However, one young child - who gets all his presents stolen by this Santa - teams up with Shirley Holmes to try and stop Christmas being cancelled. 

“Horrible Christmas has songs and audience interaction. Although it isn’t a panto - in the sense that there’s a Dame and it’s a classic fairytale story - there are definitely some similarities. It’s funny, it’s silly, and, unusually for a Horrible Histories story, it’s actually quite moving at the end as well, which is what makes it such a perfect show for the festive season. It’s a journey through all of the most important moments in Christmas. Christmas in this century is not what it’s always been like, and throughout history there have been other instances where Christmas was under threat - and that’s very apt for the scenarios we’re facing right now, I think. This is a play about how one boy saves Christmas for the whole world.”

The Horrible Histories books and productions are greatly admired for the way in which they combine education and entertainment. 

Neal continues: “John Cleese made a very good point, that making people laugh means they’ve understood what you’ve told them. To make people laugh is a great way of teaching, as your audience has to get the joke in the first place.

Terry Deary completely tapped into that in the whole foundation of Horrible Histories. In making jokes, silliness and fun out of history, you force your reader or audience to have some level of understanding. Therefore, entertainment is a fantastic way of educating. Obviously we’re not educating to help people pass exams; our motivation is more about helping people gain a better connection to the world around them. It’s about enriching the experience of life. The more you know about what’s going on, the more interesting and enjoyable living is.” 

Projected on the big screen, Car Park Panto is an inventive, Covid-safe way of keeping theatre alive for families this Christmas.

“The main challenge has been that because of the staging there isn’t as much set as we would usually have, but it will still look very pretty and Christmassy for our audiences,” says Neal. “We’ve also made it shorter, as there’s no interval - everyone stays in their cars - so it will run at just over an hour. Apart from that, though, there are very few changes. We’ve been doing this show for eight years all over the country, so it’s almost the exact same production whether we’re performing to filled theatres or full cars. That’s the beauty of it.”

The sound is delivered both from the stage and via FM, so people can listen on their car radios with the windows closed. But what does that mean for the relationship between performer and audience member?

“The great advantage to us on this tour is that we already did drive-in events for our other Horrible Histories show, Barmy Britain, over the summer, so we’ve learnt a lot about how to make them work. One of the biggest ways the audience can interact with us is they can beep their car horns at us, or flash their lights, use hazards. It is a strange experience because we don’t get all that floor laughter that we usually would through the show, but we do still get a response from the audience. It becomes a sort of self-contained performance, so it’s even more important that the actors are enjoying themselves and are able to communicate that to the audience. Another real advantage we have is that, knowing the show so well, we can pause where we know the laughs come. Even though we don’t hear them, we’ll still leave a gap for people to laugh in their car; otherwise people would force themselves to stop laughing through fear of missing something.

“It’s a very different experience as an actor, but we had a fantastic response from audience members to Barmy Britain, including those who’ve seen the show on tour before or in the West End. People get a fantastic view of the actors on the big screen, and the sound quality is perfect. In many ways, doing the drive-in style for a kids’ show also has its advantages. Sitting in the car, parents are less worried about keeping their children quiet and still - not rustling sweet packets, shouting out, talking to each other and so on. There’s always that pressure to keep quiet in a theatre audience, but this feels like viewing from the comfort of home.” 

Since its foundation, and with Neal at the helm, Birmingham Stage Company has presented over 80 productions and become one of the world’s leading producers of theatre for children and their families.

“For the first part of our life at Birmingham Stage Company, we also did a lot of adult theatre. But at some stage I realised that, if we concentrated on children’s shows, we could become one of the top companies in the world in that speciality. Focusing on family theatre meant that we could get hold of work like premiering adaptations of David Walliams’ children’s books and bringing Horrible Histories to life, which is the most successful non-fiction in the world. This is as big as it gets! Another part of the motivation to continue down that path is that I’ve always had a great rapport with children. You build a relationship between actor and child, where they’re astonished that the actor is talking directly to them, that they’re involved, and continually invited to participate. That whole theatrical relationship is so fascinating. 

“Children are also much more sophisticated than we ever give them credit for, and they never cease to surprise you with how much they understand and how engrossed they are in the show. The type of engagement in a children’s show is slightly different to that of an adult, as adults tend to sit back and let you get on with the work, whilst children are with you every step of the way. It’s a great challenge to keep them interested, but I don’t believe in the mantra that children can’t concentrate on things. Horrible

Histories and our other family offerings have proved otherwise. I’ve watched children glued to every movement we make and hanging on every word we say, and that’s very special. It’s also difficult, but that’s what makes it so exciting. You know that if a child leaves having really enjoyed the show, they’ll probably be talking about it for the days and weeks to come, asking questions about things that happened and wanting to find out more. To have that effect on another human being through theatre is so satisfying.”

Despite the uncertain year, Neal is feeling positive about the future: “We’ve got two brand-new Horrible Histories shows for next year, and I’ve also written a third one over lockdown. We’re also working on a brand-new David Walliams production. So there’s a lot in the pipeline! We’re excited for this awful period to be over, and to get back to filling theatres again like we were at our best. We want to make sure that we can celebrate our 30th anniversary in 2022, especially with what’s going on at the moment. Birmingham Stage Company has done something wonderful every year since it was founded, whether that be performing on Broadway with our production of Skellig, taking Horrible Histories to Sydney Opera House, or working with David Walliams and Terry Deary. 

“Every single year has been no different. Surprisingly, that even includes 2020, as we managed to keep going with our events and take Barmy Britain down to the Minack in Cornwall, which is the most beautiful open-air theatre right on the coast, with waves crashing over the stage as we’re performing. Birmingham Stage Company has given me the life I wanted: a life in theatre and full of opportunity all over the world, from Singapore to Hong Kong, Dubai, Qatar, Syria, and New York - you name it. We also had the privilege of having The Old Rep in Birmingham as our home for 23 years. We started in that little theatre on Station Street, and got all the way here based solely on ticket sales rather than funding. We’re very grateful for the grant we just received to help us on our way this year, and this is still an adventure of a lifetime that I’m very determined won’t end.”

Horrible Christmas visits Ricoh Arena, Coventry, on Tuesday 15 December, and Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, on Saturday 2 & Sunday 3 January.