Shropshire Lawyer stages Christmas play in aid of UNICEF Ukraine Appeal

A Shropshire mental health lawyer is urging people to put in an early order for tickets to see a Christmas musical for which he has written the songs.

Andy Howarth, a member of the mental health team in the Oswestry offices of GHP Legal, has lived in Shropshire for over twenty years and regularly indulges his passion for art and music by exhibiting his drawings and sculptures and playing his bass guitar in and around Shrewsbury.

Putting on a Christmas performance of ‘A Carpenter’s Tale’ and dedicating all the proceeds to the UNICEF Ukraine Emergency Appeal was appropriate, he says, because at the end of the story Mary and Joseph are refugees.

‘A Carpenter’s Tale’ will be performed at Shrewsbury College Arts Theatre, London Road Campus, at 7pm on Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd December. Tickets are £10 and can be purchased from www.ticketsource.co.uk/acarpenterstale, on the door, or in cash from Pengwern Books.

“Rehearsals are going really well”, says Andy. “This is a musical play featuring woodwork, angels, and 15 minutes of fame! I play the part of the wicked King Herod and am thoroughly enjoying channelling my inner monster in a way that my fellow performers are, honestly, finding a little alarming!

“It just seemed completely appropriate that all proceeds from the play should go to the Ukraine emergency appeal”, says Andy.

“At the end of the play Joseph sings: ‘I thought the news happened somewhere over there / to different people in a distant land / But suddenly it’s kicking down my stable door / and all I have is in my own two hands…"