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Artwork for A Very Jewish Christmas Carol
Artwork for A Very Jewish Christmas Carol
Artwork for A Very Jewish Christmas Carol
Artwork for A Very Jewish Christmas Carol
A Very Jewish Christmas Carol

14 Nov — 16 Dec 2023

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

A laugh-out-loud retelling of Charles Dickens's classic tale, A Very Jewish Christmas Carol will take you on a heart-warming and joyous journey through a familiar, festive and spirited time.

Approx. 1 hour 40 minutes with no interval

Book Now
Explore
This is rated 5 out of 5 stars

‘A heart-warming, must-see production.’

Theatre Matters
This is rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

‘Cleverly reinvented with cross-cultural humour, heart and Christmas magic.’

Limelight
This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

‘There’s never been A Christmas Carol quite like this festive treat.’

The Age

ABOUT THE SHOW

A Very Jewish Christmas Carol will take you on a wild and laugh-out-loud journey through a familiar, festive and spirited time of the year.

Local baker Ely is not letting anything get in the way of trying to recreate her grandmother's famous Polish gingerbread recipe this festive season. Not her family’s impending Chrismukkah celebrations, not the imminent birth of her child and definitely not the ghosts who’ve suddenly shown up in her kitchen. But the reindeer of Chrismukkah Past, Gingerbread Golem and Lilith Claus have other ideas…

A joyous retelling of Charles Dickens’s classic tale drawn from the writers’ own backgrounds and starring Natalie Gamsu, Miriam Glaser, Emma Jevons, Evelyn Krape, Jude Perl, Louise Siversen and Michael Whalley, A Very Jewish Christmas Carol is a celebration of life – with a sprinkle of time-travelling ghosts, overbearing relatives and a life lesson or two.

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Commissioned and developed through Melbourne Theatre Company’s NEXT STAGE Writers’ Program with the support of our Current and Inaugural Playwrights Giving Circles.

Current Playwrights Giving Circle
Paul and Wendy Bonnici & Family, Tony and Janine Burgess, Kathleen Canfell, Jane Hansen AO and Paul Little AO, Larry Kamener and Petra Kamener, The Margaret Lawrence Bequest, Helen Nicolay, Tania Seary and Chris Lynch, Craig Semple, Dr Richard Simmie, Fitzpatrick Sykes Family Foundation
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Inaugural Playwrights Giving Circle
Louise Myer and Martyn Myer AO, Maureen Wheeler AO and Tony Wheeler AO, Christine Brown Bequest, Allan Myers AC KC and Maria Myers AC, Tony Burgess and Janine Burgess, Dr Andrew McAliece and Dr Richard Simmie, Larry Kamener and Petra Kamener 
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Accessibility

  • Wheelchair Accessible

  • Hearing Assistance

  • Relaxed Performance

  • Audio Described

  • Tactile Tour

  • Open Captioning

  • Closed Captioning

  • Auslan Interpreted

Performance Type Performance Date(s)
Audio Described
by Vision Australia 		Saturday 2 December at 2pm
Tuesday 5 December at 6.30pm
Tactile Tour
by Vision Australia 		Saturday 2 December, 2pm (Tactile tour commences at 1pm)
Open Captioning
via screen 		Saturday 9 December at 2pm
Closed Captioning
via GoTheatrical App 		Saturday 9 December at 2pm
Auslan Interpreted
by Auslan Stage Left 		Tuesday 12 December at 6.30pm
Relaxed Performance Saturday 16 December at 2pm - Visual Story
Artwork for Natalie Gamsu

Natalie Gamsu

Fran / Lilith / Ensemble

Natalie is a singer, actor and cabaret artist whose performances have been acclaimed internationally. She first appeared with Melbourne Theatre Company in Kiss of the Spider Woman. Other recent stage credits include her one-woman autobiographical monologue Shrapnel, and Titanic (The Barollo Project); SS Metaphor (Malthouse Theatre); My Dearworthy Darling (Malthouse Theatre); Darlinghurst Nights (Hayes Theatre Company); her one-woman show Carmen Live Or Dead (Oriel Entertainment Group); Ladies in Black (Queensland Theatre); Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom (Global Creatures); Mary Poppins (Disney/Cameron Macintosh); Dr Zhivago (Gordon Frost); Barry Kosky’s Women of Troy (Sydney Theatre Company); and Sunday in the Park with George (Q Theatre).  Film and television credits include Street Smart (Worldwide Production Services/SBS); a recurring role in Neighbours (Fremantle Media); and Ali’s Wedding (Matchbox Films). Her work as a vocalist has attracted several major awards in New York where she worked for eleven years.

Current as of November 2023. 

Artwork for Miriam Glaser

Miriam Glaser

Ely

Miriam is an actor and writer and is thrilled to be making her Melbourne Theatre Company debut in A Very Jewish Christmas Carol. She has trained at The Atlantic Acting School in New York, The École Philippe Gaulier in Paris, Second City in Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Her television credits include Fires, Utopia, Very Small Business, Why Are You Like This (ABC); Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted To You, Winner & Losers, City Homicide (Seven Network); Shaun Micallef’s New Year’s Rave (Nine Network); and Fergus McPhail (Network 10/BBC). In 2022, Miriam wrote and starred in the multi-award-winning short film Assets which screened at CinefestOZ, Flickerfest, the Peninsula Film Festival and the Australian Women’s Film Festival, where she won awards including Best Actor, Best Screenplay and One to Watch. The most recent script she co-wrote, Buried, was shortlisted for the 2023 Australian Writers' Guild Monte Miller Award.

Current as of November 2023. 

Artwork for Emma Jevons

Emma Jevons

Sarah / Ensemble

Emma Jevons (they/them) is a non-binary actor based in Naarm. A Very Jewish Christmas Carol marks their debut with Melbourne Theatre Company. Wedging themselves between new work and classical texts, their previous theatre work includes The Last Hour (TART Theatre Collective); Taming Of The Shrew, Love’s Labour’s Lost and Romeo and Juliet (Melbourne Shakespeare Company); A Year Of Dating (Lab Kelpie); Hedda GablerGablerGabler (Papermouth Theatre 2019/La Mama 2022); and Just Macbeth (In The Park Productions). Their film and TV work includes the feature film Anak (Caleb Ribates- MIFF 2022), Some Happy Day (Christine Hill) and How To Stay Married (Network 10). An advocate for youth theatre participation, they are the assistant director of Track Youth Theatre.

Current as of November 2023. 

 

Artwork for Evelyn Krape

Evelyn Krape

Bubi / Golem / Ensemble

Evelyn Krape is a Melbourne-based actor, director and currently the Artistic Director of the Kadimah Yiddish Theatre (KYT). She was a founding member of the Australian Performing Group (APG) at the Pram Factory. Previous notable performances with Melbourne Theatre Company include A Floating World, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It and most recently, the highly successful season of Bloom. Other recent credits include Melbourne Shakespeare Company’s King Lear. Evelyn has received multiple prestigious awards, such as Best Actress for her role as Nellie Melba in A Toast to Melba (APG) and the Green Room Award for Best Actress in Ginger at the Playbox, and she was nominated for a Green Room Award for her performance in KYT’s Yentl. Evelyn also shared the Best Actress Award at Tropfest 2019. In 2023, she directed KYT’s captivating YIDDISH DIVAS: Into the Red Tent. Evelyn is proudly represented by Ian White Management.

Current as of November 2023. 

Artwork for Jude Perl

Jude Perl

Rivka / Ensemble

Jude Perl is a multi-award winning singer, songwriter and comedian, and is making her debut with Melbourne Theatre Company. Texas born, but Melbourne bred, Jude has created a name for herself by writing and performing hilarious, stream-of-consciousness style lyrics, set to undeniably catchy songs. In 2013, her debut single ‘Girls & Boys’ received regular airplay on commercial radio across Australia. Her debut album Modern Times was produced in LA by Grammy Award-winning engineer Brian Paturalski (OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below). Jude worked with Colin Hay (Men At Work) recording her album track ‘Canyon’. In 2016 several of Jude’s songs were featured in Body Image Movement founder Taryn Brumfitt’s internationally acclaimed documentary Embrace. Jude has written and performed six solo comedy shows, and has won four Green Room Awards. Her 2021 show Participation Award was released as an ABC Comedy Presents podcast. In the same year, she also won Best Music at Melbourne Fringe.

Current as of November 2023. 

Louise Siversen

Louise Siversen

Carol / Rein-Dybbuk / Ensemble

Louise Siversen is delighted to be returning to Melbourne Theatre Company after appearing in The Heartbreak Choir, Noises Off, True Minds, The Joy of Text, Art & Soul, All About My Mother, The Memory of Water and The Girl Who Saw Everything. With Peter Houghton she wrote, produced and performed in Underneath Mrs Archer in 2023. Other theatre credits include Hells Gate (Geelong Arts Centre); Radical Acts Festival (Theatreworks); The Last Ten Minutes of History (Courthouse Theatre); and I Can’t Even… (Malthouse Theatre). Louise’s recent screen credits include Just a Farmer, The Surrogate, Love Me (Foxtel), Rosehaven, The Gloaming, Celebration Nation, House Husbands (2012-2016) and the upcoming series High Country. Louise has been nominated for numerous awards for stage and screen, most recently for the 2023 Green Room Award for Ensemble Cast in Heartbreak Choir.

Current as of November 2023. 

Artwork for Michael Whalley

Michael Whalley

Ben / Ensemble

A Very Jewish Christmas Carol marks Michael Whalley’s debut with Melbourne Theatre Company. He has recently been gallivanting about the stage as Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Michael Cassel Group). Other productions include the title role in Romeo and Juliet (Auckland Theatre Company); Hir (Belvoir); The Threepenny Opera (Malthouse Theatre), and Muriel’s Wedding the Musical as Perry Heslop (Sydney Theatre Company). His work in television includes Halifax: Retribution, Wanted, The Principal, Love Child, Pirates of the Airwaves and US series Legend of the Seeker. Michael’s international film career includes Unbroken, Jean, The Pretend One, Pirates of the Airwaves, Slow West and Lord of the Rings. He won a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actor for Hir. 

Current as of November 2023. 

Artwork for Elise Esther Hearst

Elise Esther Hearst

Lead Writer

Elise Esther Hearst is an award-winning Melbourne-based playwright and published author, working and living on Boon Wurrung country. She studied Creative Arts at Melbourne University and Playwriting at the Royal Court Theatre in London, and was a resident writer with Melbourne Theatre Company as part of the NEXT STAGE Writers' Program in 2019-2020. Her work has appeared at various theatres around Australia, including Yentl (Arts Centre Melbourne and Malthouse Theatre in 2024); The Mesh (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre); The Sea Project (Griffin Theatre); and Bright World (Theatre Works). Her debut novel, One Day We’re All Going to Die, was published in 2023 by HQ Fiction, Harper Collins Australia.

Current as of November 2023. 

 

Artwork for Phillip Kavanagh

Phillip Kavanagh

Co-Writer

Phillip Kavanagh is a playwright, originally from Adelaide. From 2019-2020, Phillip was a Melbourne Theatre Company resident writer as part of the NEXT STAGE Writers' Program. He completed a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Honours) and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing at Flinders University, as well as a Graduate Diploma of Dramatic Art (Playwriting) at NIDA. He is currently a PhD candidate at Flinders University.  His plays include Jesikah (State Theatre Company South Australia), Deluge (Tiny Bricks/Brink/Adelaide Festival), Replay (Griffin Theatre Company) and a new adaptation of Moliére’s Tartuffe (Brink/State Theatre Company South Australia). Phillip is one-half of the independent theatre company Tiny Bricks, a creative partnership with director Nescha Jelk. He has been awarded the Patrick White Playwrights' Award, Jill Blewett Playwright's Award, and the Colin Thiele Creative Writing Scholarship.

Current as of November 2023. 

Artwork for Sarah Giles

Sarah Giles

Director / Dramaturg

Sarah Giles is an award-winning opera and theatre director. Her theatre directing credits include The Truth, Straight White Men (Melbourne Theatre Company); The Importance of Being Earnest, No Pay? No Way!, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Perplex, Mrs Warren’s Profession, Marriage Blanc, Money Shots and Ruby Moon (Sydney Theatre Company); S.S. Metaphor, Blaque Showgirls (Malthouse Theatre); The Popular Mechanicals (State Theatre of South Australia and Sydney Theatre Company); Kreutzer vs Kreutzer (Australian Chamber Orchestra); The Ugly One, The Pigeons (Griffin Theatre); and That Face (Red Stitch). Opera credits include La Traviata (Opera Queensland/State Opera of South Australia/West Australian Opera); Lorelei (Victorian Opera, Opera Queensland); O Mensch, Pas à Pas – Nulle Part, and Into the Little Hill (Sydney Chamber Opera/Sydney Festival). Sarah was the Affiliate Director in Residence at Griffin Theatre Company in 2009. In 2011 she was appointed the Richard Wherrett fellow at Sydney Theatre Company and in 2013 she was their Resident Director.

Current as of November 2023. 

 

Artwork for Cassandra Fumi

Cassandra Fumi

Associate Director

Cassandra Fumi is a theatre director and maker based in Naarm. Her work is socially informed and community centred. She is pleased to be returning to Melbourne Theatre Company having previously assistant directed The House of Bernarda Alba. Other directorial credits include The Crocodile (fortyfivedownstairs, Spinning Plates); Far Away (fortyfivedownstairs, Patalog Theatre); The Mermaid (La Mama Theatre); Dog Show (Melbourne Fringe Festival) and Nadja after Andre Breton (Cockpit Theatre, London). She has worked as assistant director on OH DEER! (Rising, APHIDS); and Wittenoom (Red Stich Actors’ Theatre). She has worked as associate artist with Samara Hearsh on Body of Knowledge and It’s Going to Get Dark, and as a touring director on We All Know What’s Happening (Vitalstatistix). Cassandra has longstanding relationships with companies such as THE RABBLE, Fraught Outfit, Performing Lines and APHIDS.

Current as of November 2023. 

 

Artwork for Jude Perl

Jude Perl

Musical Director / Arranger

Jude Perl is a multi-award winning singer, songwriter and comedian, and is making her debut with Melbourne Theatre Company. Texas born, but Melbourne bred, Jude has created a name for herself by writing and performing hilarious, stream-of-consciousness style lyrics, set to undeniably catchy songs. In 2013, her debut single ‘Girls & Boys’ received regular airplay on commercial radio across Australia. Her debut album Modern Times was produced in LA by Grammy Award-winning engineer Brian Paturalski (OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below). Jude worked with Colin Hay (Men At Work) recording her album track ‘Canyon’. In 2016 several of Jude’s songs were featured in Body Image Movement founder Taryn Brumfitt’s internationally acclaimed documentary Embrace. Jude has written and performed six solo comedy shows, and has won four Green Room Awards. Her 2021 show Participation Award was released as an ABC Comedy Presents podcast. In the same year, she also won Best Music at Melbourne Fringe.

Current as of November 2023. 

Artwork for Jacob Battista

Jacob Battista

Set Designer

Jacob Battista is a Melbourne-based theatre designer and practitioner. Jacob completed a Bachelor of Production at the Victorian College of the Arts. Design credits include Admissions (Melbourne Theatre Company); A Simple Act of Kindness, Grace, Iphigenia in Splott, Love, Love, Love, Jumpers for Goalposts, Belleville and Out Of The Water (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre); Driftwood, the Musical (Umbrella Productions); Hand to God, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown and Bad Jews (Vass Theatre Group); Rust and Bone (La Mama Theatre); Burn This (fortyfivedownstairs); Songs for a New World (Blue Saint); Therese Raquin (Dirty Pretty Theatre); Carrie The Musical (Ghost Light); and as associate set designer Bernhardt/Hamlet and Shakespeare in Love (Melbourne Theatre Company). Jacob was a recipient of a 2016 Besen Family Scholarship at Malthouse Theatre working with Marg Horwell on Edward II and is also a recipient of an Australia Council ArtStart Grant.

Current as of November 2023. 

Artwork for Dann Barber

Dann Barber

Costume Designer

Dann Barber is an award-winning set and costume designer whose work is influenced by his study of drawing and fine art at RMIT. He is also a graduate of theatre design from NIDA. Recent work includes Melbourne, Cheryomushki (Victorian Opera); The Crocodile (Spinning Plates); Wittenoom, The Amateurs (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre); Rent (LPD Productions); Barnum the Musical and Chess (Storeyboard Entertainment). He has been the associate costume designer for Gabriela Tylesova for the Australian Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty and again for Melbourne Theatre Company’s Shakespeare in Love. Dann has received and been nominated for numerous awards including Green Room Awards for Best Design in Cabaret for The Ghetto Cabaret (Kadimah Yiddish Theatre), Best Independent Set and Costume Design for The Mermaid (La Mama Theatre) and Best Set Design for Yentl (Kadimah Yiddish Theatre). Dann is a guest lecturer and tutor at VCA and Melbourne University.

Current as of November 2023. 

Richard Vabre

Richard Vabre

Lighting Designer

Richard Vabre is a freelance lighting designer living and working in Naarm. Previously for Melbourne Theatre Company, Richard has lit John, Lungs, What Rhymes With Cars and Girls, The Waiting Room, Top Girls, On The Production of Monsters, The Water Carriers, The Apocalypse Bear Trilogy and The Colours. He has also lit productions for Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir, Malthouse Theatre, Red Stitch Actor’s Theatre, Black Swan State Theatre Company, Victorian Opera, Windmill Theatre, Arena Theatre Company, NICA, The Darwin Festival, Stuck Pig’s Squealing, Chambermade, Rawcus, Polyglot, Melbourne Worker’s Theatre, Aphids and many, many shows at La Mama. Richard has won five Green Room Awards including the Association’s John Truscott Prize for Excellence in Design in 2004. He has also been nominated for 10 other Green Room Awards.

Current as of November 2023. 

Artwork for Jed Palmer

Jed Palmer

Composer & Sound Designer

Jed Palmer returns to Melbourne Theatre Company after composing and sound designing The Sovereign Wife (Melbourne Theatre Company/Sisters Grimm). His other theatre credits include The Nervous Atmosphere (Chamber Made/Arts House); The Listies’ Hamlet and Calpurnia Descending (Sydney Theatre Company); Blaque Showgirls, Blak Cabaret, Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid and SS Metaphor (Malthouse Theatre). He is composer on television productions including Black Snow (Stan) with Ziggy Ramo, A Beginner’s Guide to Grief (SBS) and the Canneseries-winning digital program Over and Out. His film scoring credits include Kitty Green’s recent feature The Royal Hotel, Upgrade, Animals, I Used to be Normal – A Boyband Fangirl Movie, Otherlife, The Infinite Man and Ukraine is Not a Brothel.

Current as of November 2023. 

Artwork for Jennifer Medway

Jennifer Medway

Dramaturg

Jennifer Medway is the Head of New Work at Melbourne Theatre Company.

A dramaturg with over a decade of professional experience in the development of new Australian work, she was Melbourne Theatre Company’s Literary Associate from 2017-2021 and Acting Literary Manager of Melbourne Theatre Company 2021-2022. Prior to this she was Resident Dramaturg at the Australian Theatre for Young People, Studio Artist at Griffin Theatre Company, Associate Artist-Dramatugy at Belvoir, Literary Assistant also at Belvoir, and a regular script assessor and dramaturg for Playwriting Australia.

Jennifer is also a regular guest lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts within their Masters of Directing, Playwriting and Dramaturgy programmes and was on the judging panel for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award’s Book of the Year prize and the Nick Enright Playwriting Prize from 2018-2020.

Jonathan-Oxlade.jpg

Jonathon Oxlade

Design Concept Contributor

Matt Furlani

Matt Furlani

Voice & Text Coach

Artwork for Lyndall Grant

Lyndall Grant

Fight Choreographer

Artwork for Cessalee Stovall

Cessalee Stovall

Intimacy Coordinator

Artwork for Krystyna Duszniak

Krystyna Duszniak

Polish Translation & Language Coach

Artwork for Rebecca (Rivke) Margolis

Rebecca (Rivke) Margolis

Yiddish Translation

Artwork for Freydi Mrocki

Freydi Mrocki

Yiddish Language Coach & Song Translation

Learn more about A Very Jewish Christmas Carol

Get Directions

The Sumner

140 Southbank Boulevard

Southbank, Victoria 3006