Crucible’s production of Dicken’s A Christmas Carol incorporates festive songs from the area, where aural traditions stay strong
T
here are more than 30 different versions of While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks By Night, though most of us will have heard only one. The rest can be found in the cosy pubs of Sheffield and Derbyshire on winter evenings, crooned with pints in hand adjacent to roaring fires.
There was a time when all carols were local, sung in only one village, or with lyrics or music varying from place to place. When church carols became standardised in the 1800s, hundreds of local carols died out. But in Sheffield, generation after generation has held on to their tradition, singing those beloved folk songs in pubs to keep them alive.
That wholesome heritage is being celebrated on the stage in the Crucible theatre’s adaptation of the Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. When audience members from the city and the surrounding villages watch the show, they are transported to their local pubs by the sound of carols that were once almost lost.
