RSC cast bid a fond farewell to A Christmas Carol as they pose for group photo

AS the new year dawned the curtain came down on the last performance of A Christmas Carol.

Sharing a wrap picture of the cast was Mitesh Soni, who played Bob Cratchit, he said: “Big thanks to everyone who came. And an even bigger one to the gloriously incredible team on and off-stage. God bless ‘em, everyone.”

The sold-out run saw Adrian Edmondson take the lead role of Scrooge.

The actor said he thought the show had made people think about how they can be better.

He previously told Herald Arts: “There’s a cheer I get when I go for a solo bow at the end, and it’s a very particular cheer, not one I’ve had before.

“I think it’s people cheering the idea of themselves being better people – they are recognising that within that morass of inhumanity some of it pertains to them.

“Some of them laugh at the joke of the beginning: ‘What’s Christmastime to you other than spending money you don’t have on people you don’t like and calling it festivity?’ – I think those people get their comeuppance at the end, and think ‘you know I could be nicer, I could put more in the foodbank, more in the collection tins – I could knock on the elderly neighbour’s door’.

“I don’t know, maybe that is just wishful thinking – but it is based on that cheer and I don’t think that is entirely for me, I think it’s for the idea we could be better people.”

Edmondson did not rule out working at the RSC again in the future, he said: “I love working here. I’d like to come back to the Swan when it reopens, it’s a nice space – I like new plays.”

The next production to open at the RSC is The Tempest.

It opens at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from 26th January and runs until 4th March.

Alex Kingston (Doctor Who, A Discovery of Witches, ER) stars as Prospero and Jessica Rhodes plays Miranda.

Directed by Elizabeth Freestone, The Tempest has set design by Tom Piper, costume design by Tom Piper and features puppetry by Rachael Canning.

The Tempest asks us to examine the delicate balance in our personal relationships, as well as with the fragile ecosystems around us.

What damage do we do to each other – and to the natural world? In the end, young love brings hope for a better life: perhaps healing ourselves and mending the planet are one and the same thing.

Tickets www.rsc.org.uk.