THE CHRISTMAS LOBSTER Comes to Farnham Maltings in December

With original live music, puppetry and laughter aplenty, The Christmas Lobster is a brand-new bonkers Christmas show that's fun for all the family. Join the oddballs and misfits that make up the Society for Christmas Creatures, an expert team of festive detectives, as they head off on a madcap adventure quest to discover the true meaning of Christmas. They've trekked far and wide searching for Christmas creatures of every shape and size to reveal their yuletide secrets. Now they're here in Farnham for their toughest mission yet: to find the elusive Christmas Lobster. Will they reveal the true meaning of Christmas, or will its shell be too tough to crack?  

The Christmas Lobster will be the first festive offering produced in-house for Farnham Maltings, and has been created by associate company Bucket Club (Five Children and It, The Egg). Audiences are encouraged to participate as new recruits to the Society of Christmas Creatures, joining in with society songs and keeping their eyes peeled for the elusive Christmas Lobster. The original music has been composed by long-term Bucket Club collaborator, Ellie Showering, a familiar face from past productions who is bringing their extensive composing experience to a Bucket Club show for the first time.  

Writer and director Nel Crouch said, “As director of Bucket Club, I'm delighted that we're working with Farnham Maltings to create The Christmas Lobster. Our relationship with the Maltings began over ten years ago with a seed commission to create our first professional production. Since then, Bucket Club productions have been staged all over the country, entertaining audiences in large scale venues through to rural village halls. We can't wait to introduce the people of Farnham to our Christmas Lobster and bring plenty of festive magic along the way.” 

Bucket Club, produced by Farnham Maltings, make adventurous theatre for audiences of all ages. Their work is playful and collaborative, placing its audience at its core. It's often very funny, it's usually very beautiful and it always involves live music and sound design. Past shows have won awards including the Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence and the Musical Theatre Network Award for Innovation. Their most recent show was Five Children and It, the Christmas show for The Egg. 

Farnham Maltings is a cultural organisation based in Surrey with a regional, national and international reach, presenting a programme of performance and participation work. We make our own theatre, mostly for smaller communities, as well as producing and investing in a cohort of the region's leading theatre companies. Farnham Maltings's ambition in leading the ‘house' network of 180 arts centres and theatre is to ensure that the South East of England thrives as a set of creative communities. Through ‘caravan', Farnham Maltings presents the best theatre being made in England to an international audience, with the ambition to develop reciprocity and exchange between artists and producers across the world. Farnham Maltings is curious about how to encourage generosity, build on Farnham's reputation for crafts and meet the challenges facing towns across our region