Having already produced three very successful interactive theatrical dining experiences over the past couple of years – A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Kingdom and A Christmas Carol and Black Fate at The Beacon, the experimental theatre troupe Get Out of My Space (GOOMS) is back with a fourth dramatic dining offering: The Three Scrooges which will again be performed at The Beacon from December 1 to 19.
GOOMS was founded in 2019 by Tobias Cornwell who saw a gap in the market for producing exciting theatre locally – and where the audience is just as an important element as the cast members. Not all GOOMS shows are dining experiences though – some are pure theatre – but each one ensures that every audience member is at the heart of the action and treated to a unique experience.
Just last month Tobias and the GOOMS team put on a version of Macbeth at The Beacon which was very well received by audiences. And for Christmas The Three Scrooges sounds like it’s going to be another must-see event.
“Simply put, this Christmas extravaganza promises to be like no other,” Tobias explains. “If you’re looking for the complete night out, filled with festive food, wonderful wines, and electric entertainment; without the stress of having to hop from restaurant to theatre to bar, this is the perfect experience for you.
“All you need to do is gather your friends or family, don your favourite Christmas jumpers, and let us fill you up with Christmas cheer, Christmas merriment, and of course a delicious Christmas feast.”
According to Tobias The Three Scrooges is an ‘hilarious and heartfelt’ immersive dining and theatre adaptation of the much beloved A Christmas Carol, wherein three actors all turn up thinking they’ve been cast as the great bah humbug himself.
“They begin the performance all speaking Scrooge’s lines before an argument ensues – they soon realise they can’t carry on with this madness. They can’t have three Scrooges! Who’s going to play all the other roles?! There is only one thing for it. YOU the audience must decide.”
Tobias adds that at The Three Scrooges, each and every night the audience have full control over which actor gets to play Ebenezer Scrooge, whilst the other two then have to scramble around to play the 100+ other roles.
“It’s quite the feat!” laughs Tobias before admitting that it’s not been an easy ride since Covid.
“The first year we collaborated with The Beacon on an immersive dining and theatre adaptation of A Christmas Carol was back in 2019 – in what felt like completely different world. We only had five performances that year, but it was an absolute hit among those who experienced it, and so we decided that next year we needed to go far bigger.
“All that needs saying from our end is that we went from selling the most tickets we’d ever sold, to having to cancel them all, to having to move the entire show 800metres down the road to East Sussex and being able to sell tickets again, before having to close after three days because of being put into Tier 4. It was an emotional and physical roller coaster, while just trying to deliver some Christmas cheer to people who needed it after the year we’d all had. An endeavour that ended up costing me £20,000. Standing in our empty performance space in December last year, feeling like Bob Cratchit to Boris’ Scrooge, I made a promise that we would return – bigger and better than ever.”
And Tobias has certainly been able to do that given how well ticket sales are going. But he is keen to say how thankful he is about the support he has received from Tunbridge Wells Borough Council which has ensured GOOMS can still keep going.
“Without their support throughout this time I would not be in the position I am now to put on another show. A show that is going to be worth waiting for if you missed it last year, and a show you won’t want to miss if you’ve never been to our immersive dining and theatre experiences. Thanks to the Council’s financial aid, and support from my friends and family around me, we are coming back this Christmas with The Three Scrooges which, simply put, is a Christmas extravaganza that promises to be like no other.”
For more info or to book tickets which cost £65 per person and include the show and dinner visit www.gooms.co.uk/the-three-scrooges
