Under intense red stage lighting, two performers clasp hands with arms flung wide in a festive room set with a decorated fireplace and stockings.

Polka Theatre2022

Crackers: A Festive Family Farce

The Production

Polka Theatre’s Christmas production for ages 5–12, Crackers: A Festive Family Farce, was written by Charles Way and staged in Wimbledon from 19 November 2022 to 15 January 2023. The festive comedy follows the Cracker family as a pet-shop crisis, a missing rat and a hidden-diamond mystery collide on Christmas Eve.

37 photographs in the curated edit

Director: Nicky Allpress
Movement Director: Dave Hearn
Lighting Design: Anna Reddyhoff
Set & Costume Design: Liz Cooke
Sound Design: Anna Short
Commissioned by: Polka Theatre
Photography: Steve Gregson

A wide view of an empty theatre stage shows a colourful pet-themed room set under blue and amber lighting, with tables, chairs, shelves and multiple doorways.

A performer in a dark uniform and white face makeup holds a sheet of paper and gestures anxiously under cool blue lighting.

Three performers move energetically across a brightly lit room set, with purple overhead lights and haze adding a chaotic atmosphere.

Three performers peek into a domestic set from the sides and through a striped curtain, with a table and chairs in the foreground.

A performer in a green sports top recoils as a burst of white spray or foam erupts in front of his face, while a performer in a purple hoodie laughs nearby.

Five performers are spread across the stage in a cluttered room set, including one seated in a wheelchair, as others stand or sit facing her.

In a close stage grouping, a kneeling performer in a striped jumper tends to an older performer seated in a wheelchair while two others watch.

A performer in an apron stands on the table with arms raised as three others around the room react in surprise.

A performer kneels over a man lying flat on the stage floor near a door, appearing to check on him in the cluttered room set.

A performer’s head pokes through a hole in a bricked-up fireplace as another in a bright pink hoodie leans toward them on a cluttered, Christmas-decorated set.

A face peers from a green wreath set into a bricked-up fireplace, with festive stockings and household items around the mantel.

Five performers gather around a kitchen table under colourful stage lighting, reacting excitedly to an open box on a busy domestic set.

Three performers cluster around a table as one in a green football shirt reads from a small envelope while the seated older performer smiles broadly.

A performer in a green football shirt stands alone on a rug holding a microphone and pointing outward under blue and amber stage lights.

A performer in striped sleeves and an apron stands by a wooden door, concentrating on a red Christmas cracker in their hands.

On a brightly lit kitchen set, a performer in a green football shirt crawls on the floor while an older performer with antlers stands behind a table.

A performer in a green football shirt stands centre stage with hands raised as an older performer to the side lifts a floorboard near rolled-up rugs.

A performer in an oversized grey pinstripe suit and glasses stands stiffly in front of a wooden door, hands clasped under warm light.

Three performers share the stage as a suited performer stretches a long strip of paper from the fireplace area toward a roll on the floor.

Under pink stage lighting, a woman wearing reindeer antlers gleefully raises a sprig above a startled man in a suit seated on a table in a festive, cluttered room set.

A chaotic ensemble moment on a Christmas-decorated room set, with performers rushing around a table and an open trapdoor under vivid purple lighting.

Two performers lean toward each other across a kitchen table set with breakfast items, surrounded by patterned wallpaper and warm stage lighting.

Five performers spread across a detailed room set, with one searching in a donation box while others react from the table area and doorway.

A woman in reindeer antlers points sternly while two performers lie sprawled on the floor near an open trapdoor in a festive room set.

A performer crawls out from beneath a white tablecloth while three others stand or sit around the room set, reacting with hands to their faces.

A performer dressed as Santa rises from an open trapdoor and poses dramatically under blue lighting as four others watch around the Christmas-decorated set.

A woman in reindeer antlers watches anxiously as a small white puppet appears from a burgundy handbag beside a decorated cake on a table.

In blue stage light, two performers reach a long grabber toward another performer in a purple hoodie who recoils with hands raised in a doorway.

Three performers stand close together in front of a Christmas-decorated fireplace, eating small treats with mixed expressions of delight and concentration.

Under vivid blue and pink stage lighting, two women hug warmly beside cluttered shop shelves while a man in a red puffer jacket bends over the counter.

A man in a red puffer jacket holds a small white stuffed dog as a woman in an apron offers it a microphone on the brightly lit shop set.

In a wide stage scene, smoke pours from an open floor hatch as a performer in a green sports shirt emerges holding a green “BARTONIO 1” jersey while four others react around him.

A performer in a green football shirt gestures mid-speech beneath drifting smoke and a reversed “PETS” sign on the shabby shop interior set.

Two performers smile and clasp hands in front of a striped blind, one wearing a green sports shirt and the other an oversized pink hoodie.

A busy full-stage scene shows one performer lying flat on the floor while three others search or tidy around a cluttered pet shop set with boxes, a table and a small Christmas tree.

Five performers huddle together smiling beneath the reversed “PETS” sign, with a microphone held at the centre and a Santa hat perched on the performer in the green shirt.

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