Nicola in Season’s Greetings

Season’s Greetings is a play written by Alan Ayckbourn in 1980 which had its world premiere on 25 September 1980 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough, and its London Premiere on 28 January 1982 at the Greenwich Theatre. There has been many productions of this play over the years. According to the description in the webpage for this production at the National Theatre, the play offers a seriously entertaining look at the misery and high jinks of an average family Christmas.

In the 2010 National Theatre production, Nicola plays Rachel, the sister of Belinda (played by Catherine Tate) who is the female lead of this play. In the play, Rachel is described as “a little older than her sister, Belinda and less conventionally pretty …”. Not sure about the “less conventionally pretty” bit. Nicola can play them in all shapes and sizes, conventionally or unconventionally pretty, sane/manic, demure/man eater etc.

The Season’s Greetings page on the National Theatre website can be found HERE. Click through the rehearsal photos and you will see a very pretty photo of Nicola, hard at work during rehearsals (see above).

(*the Rehearsal Gallery seems to be broken at the moment. We have emailed the National Theatre about this and they have indicated that they will look into it and fix it soon.)

Update 25 November 2010

The Rehearsal Gallery’s been fixed. Yay!

Thanks to the National Theatre, we have also been given permission to display this colour version of that rehearsal photo. There is a slightly large version of this photo in the Galleries section.

The first batch of 29 performances, to run from 1 December 2010 to 4 January 2011, have been sold out. The National Theatre recently announced a second batch of 39 performances, to run from 12 January 2011 till 13 March 2011 and tickets have been selling quite briskly. If you wish to catch Nicola’s performance, you will need to get tickets without further delay!

Press night will be held on 8 December 2010. We will be updating this post with Reviews and press night photos on 9 December 2010.

Update  8 December 2010

The National Theatre has now put up a Production Gallery on the Season’s Greetings page which you can find HERE. There’s one picture of Nicola on her own and a second picture of her with two other cast members.

The Reviews are in and you can find links to them and other resources relating to this play HERE.

Update 12 December 2010

There is now available on the National Theatre Season’s Greetings website a short video of interview with cast members who share their thoughts on Christmas. You can access it HERE. Nicola appears in the beginning of this interview. If for any reason you cannot access the video or it gets pulled so that its no longer available, we have a transcript of what Nicola said HERE (in the second part of that Post).

Update 14 December 2010

Nicola has been interviewed by Whats on Stage about her role in Season’s Greetings. You can access the article HERE.

Update 17 December 2010

The National Theatre will stage a Theatrical Quiz on 21 December 2010 at 6 pm where the Season’s Greetings cast, led by Catherine Tate, will compete against the Hamlet cast, led by Claire Higgins, on their knowledge of all things relating to theatre. The event will be moderated by Emma Freud. Tickets at ₤3.50/₤2.50 each. The event will last about 45 minutes. There is a maximum of four members in each team, and sadly, Nicola was not picked for the Season’s Greetings team (to be known as the Amazing Ayckbourns).

Marianne Elliot, the Director of Season’s Greetings, will give a talk on the show on 4 January 2011.

Each of Mark Gatiss, Catherine Tate and David Troughton of the Season’s Greetings cast, will give talks, on different dates, in February.

You can read about these event at the “Platforms” section at the National Theatre website HERE.

Update 22 December 2010

Congratulations to the Amazing Ayckbourns, who won the 2010 National Theatre Annual Theatre Quiz. Its a pity that the National Theatre has declined to publish a list of the questions and answers which formed this quiz.