Box of Tricks to Bring NARVIK Tour to HOME Manchester This Winter

Following their hugely successful touring productions of Plastic Figurines and Chip Shop Chips, Manchester-based theatre company Box of Tricks will open their 2017 tour of Narvik, their critically acclaimed new play with songs, by award-winning playwright Lizzie Nunnery, at HOME between Tue 31 Jan - Sat 4 Feb 2017.

Inspired by tales from naval veterans, and stories of her grandfather's time in the Royal Navy, Narvik brings to life a powerful story of love, guilt, heroism and betrayal. Set during the Second World War, Narvik tells the story of a Liverpudlian man and a Norwegian woman pulled together and torn apart by war as the events of one summer cause ripples across an ocean of time.

"Following the success of the premiere at The Liverpool Playhouse in 2015, I can't wait for Narvik to tour to a wider audience," says Nunnery. "It's been great to build on the experience of the debut run, developing and shaping the script and music further - putting together an even more exciting version of the show to take out nationwide. I'm so proud of the production team and cast for taking the kernel of an idea and turning it in to an epic tale of love and war.

"The story is fictionalised from true stories of Second World War sailors, including some told to me by my granddad, but from the start Hannah [Tyrrell-Pinder] and I wanted to do much more than present history on stage. Through the music and physicality, the storytelling enters strange dreamlike places where memory, imagination and truth collide, creating an intense and immersive show. It'll be exciting to see how different audiences respond to it from Keswick to London."

Lizzie Nunnery explores her dual creative strands - writer, and singer/songwriter - to conjure a play where music and words meet, creating a patchwork of memory and dream, truth and fantasy.

The cast features Liverpool-based Joe Shipman (Ten Tiny Toes and The Way Home, Liverpool Everyman), Hulme-based Lucas Smith (Doctor Faustus, Royal Exchange; A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Hallé) and Londoner Nina Yndis (Norwegian feature film Glassdukkene and Peaky Blinders).

The production is directed by Box of Tricks' Joint Artistic Director and co-founder, Manchester-based Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder, designed by award-winning designer Katie Scott (shortlisted for this year's Old Vic 12) and features original music and songs by Vidar Norheim, Martin Heslop and Lizzie Nunnery.

Writer Lizzie Nunnery is an award-winning playwright and celebrated singer-songwriter. Lizzie's first theatre play, Intemperance (Liverpool Everyman, September 2007) was awarded five stars by The Guardian and shortlisted for the Meyer-Whitworth Award. In 2017 she will have theatre work produced by Liverpool Everyman, Royal Exchange Theatre, Box of Tricks, and NT Connections. She has also written extensively for BBC Radio. The Hanleys, a series currently being broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

To celebrate the release of the EP of original music from Narvik, playwright Lizzie Nunnery will be performing music from the production and her previous albums alongside collaborators Martin Heslop and Vidar Norheim at HOME on Wednesday 1 February.

Lizzie Nunnery is a singer and songwriter, performing regularly with producer/composer Vidar Norheim. Releases include albums Company of Ghosts (Fellside Recordings 2010) and Black Hound Howling (Red Thread 2012). Their last EP, Songs of Drink and Revolution, was released in 2013 to critical acclaim.

HOME, Manchester's centre for international contemporary art, theatre, film and books, opened its doors over the 2015 May Bank Holiday weekend. Designed by Dutch architects Mecanoo and featuring a 500-seat theatre, a 150-seat flexible theatre, a 500m2, 4m high gallery space, five cinema screens, digital production and broadcast facilities, a café bar and restaurant, HOME's theatres are a platform for questioning and ambitious artistic projects that involve audiences with new and extraordinary theatrical experiences. The international contemporary visual art programme is dedicated to presenting new commissions by emerging and established artists of regional, national and international significance, with a bold, proactive policy of visual, innovative storytelling with the ability to experiment and explore, probe and provoke, creating a distinct experience for both artists and audiences. HOME's five cinemas showcase the very best in contemporary and classic cinema, screening works by artists and filmmakers both established and new. HOME is a centre for co-production, talent development and artistic creation, dedicated to learning, for people of all ages. A place for new work and playful ideas; of festivals and commissions; of artists and of audience engagement. The patrons of HOME are Danny Boyle, National Theatre Artistic Director Nicholas Hytner, actress SurAnne Jones, playwright and poet Jackie Kay MBE, artists Rosa Barba and Phil Collins, filmmaker Asif Kapadia, and actress and author Meera Syal CBE. Following Narvik, HOME stages Blak Whyte Gray, a hip-hop dance triple bill presented by Boy Blue Entertainment (9-11 Feb 2017); Paul Auster's City of Glass, presented by 59 Productions, HOME, and the Lyric Hammersmith (4-18 March 2017); cross-art festival VIVA 2017 (31 March-17 April 2017); My Country: A Work in Progress presented by the National Theatre (18-22 April 2017); Letters To Windsor House presented by Sh!t Theatre (19-21 April); Rosie Kay's MK Ultra (3/4 May 2017); Tank presented by Breach Theatre (4/6 May); Jack Rooke: Good Grief (17-19 May); Kieran Hurley's Heads Up (18-20 May 2017); Rose by Martin Sherman, starring Dame Janet Suzman (25 May-10 June 2017); Operation Black Antler presented by Blast Theory and Hydrocracker (7-17 June 2017); Sick! Festival (4-8 July 2017); The Wedding presented by Gecko (12-16 September); and Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov directed by Walter Meierjohann (3-18 November 2017). Go to www.homemcr.org.

Box of Tricks is a Manchester-based theatre company that champions the next generation of playwrights, producing top quality new plays on local and national stages. We are a launch-pad for new talent. We commission and develop bold and original new plays from the most exciting new voices, creating ambitious and heartfelt theatre that engages, challenges and entertains. We stage new plays in Manchester and the North West and tour new productions to audiences nationwide. We engage audiences, young people and emerging industry professionals in theatre and the arts through engagement activities beyond productions. We are the next generation. We are the new play makers. We are Box of Tricks. Visit www.boxoftrickstheatre.co.uk for more information.

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