THE Lamb & Lion Inn and Flanagan Collective are making a meal of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol again after a sell-out Christmas 2011 collaboration.

“It just feels like a combination of things that are really nice to do anyway,” says writer Alexander Wright. “Going out to a pub, having a meal, being warm and cosy, and all we had to do was link it with a story – the greatest Christmas story.”

The York theatre practitioners enjoyed themselves so much at the High Petergate pub last year that “we didn’t take much persuading to do it again”, and so they have linked up for more play-and-a-plate nights of their dinner-theatre adaptation, complete with hearty festive fayre to go with the Dickensian magic and suspense.

From tomorrow to December 30, you are invited to “join host Jacob Marley as you attempt to reform the biggest festive naysayer of them all: Ebenezer Scrooge”.

The show is performed over dinner, as up to a maximum of 20 guests enjoy a two-course meal and flagon of ale while taking a central role in Marley’s plan to convert Scrooge to the joys of Christmas and goodwill for all.

On arrival at the Victorian inn, guests will move through to the Top Parlour Room, complete with roaring fire, to become immersed in the Dickensian world conjured by writer Wright and director Tom Bellerby.

Met by Ed Wren’s Scrooge and John Holt Roberts’s Jacob Marley/Spirits of Christmas, the guests will witness the transformation from sour and stingy miser to a man filled with compassion, joy and kindness as they find themselves at the heart of this interactive theatrical experience. Cue an evening bursting with traditional Victorian entertainment, singing, dancing and parlour games.

“A Christmas Carol must be the most told story each winter and it’s such a humbling and touching story to do,” says Alexander, who notes that Nightshade Productions are doing a promenade version on York’s streets simultaneously.

“There’s an audience for both types of show, us doing a warm show inside and Amos D Jacob’s production out in the cold, so we feel part of A Christmas Carol club.

“What we learnt last year, especially early on, was how to tell the story, as it’s such an expansive and supernatural story that moves around a lot, so we had to figure out how to translate that into one little room in a pub.

“There’s no technical facility; if the lights go off, you can light some candles, and you ask the audience to buy into that spirit and be guided on the journey by Jacob Marley.”

• Flanagan Collective’s A Christmas Carol, Lamb & Lion Inn, High Petergate York, tomorrow until December 30, except December 17, 24, 25 and 26, at 7.30 for 8pm. Tickets: £25, including meal, on 01904 612078. Also Fauconberg Arms, Coxwold, tonight, 8pm; capacity 30; tickets £19, on 01347 868214. Age suitability: eight plus.