Kneehigh's Asylum Season Returns to Cornwall with Three New Shows

Summer's coming and it is time to pick up the guy ropes and pitch the tent for the return of Kneehigh's incredibly popular Asylum, set in the magnificent surroundings of the historic Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall.

Now in its sixth year, The Asylum has firmly established itself in the public's consciousness as a must-go event on the summer calendar. The award-winning purpose built tent is a unique space full of playful surprises and irreverent fun and this year's season which runs from Thursday 14 July to Sunday 28 August is even bigger with three new productions.

The season includes Daniel Jamieson's The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk directed by Emma Rice, a dazzling and evocative play vividly drawn from the early life of artist Marc Chagall and his wife Bella; Simon Harvey directs FUP, his adaptation of US novelist Jim Dodge's best-selling modern fable about an overweight, whisky-swilling duck and the Asylum also welcomes from Shakespeare Globe and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Nick Bagnall's touring production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Last year's huge Asylum hit was Michael Morpurgo's 946, The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips directed by Emma Rice. As part of Kneehigh's new status as an Associate Company to the Globe, this production will play at the London venue in August following a run of The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in June.

Mike Shepherd, Artistic Director of Kneehigh said 'This year we bring you not one, not two, but three shows in a more intimate "indigo" Asylum. Kneehigh's new show The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk is brilliantly directed by Emma , the strangely marvellous Fup is directed by Cornwall's own Simon Harvey and we thought it time to try some Shakespeare in the Asylum so we're proud to host the Globe's Two Gentlemen of Verona. It's always good to be back amongst the sheep in a sea breeze at Heligan and this year, we also celebrate our new association with the Globe...exciting times'

The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk

By Daniel Jamieson

Directed by Emma Rice

Thursday 14 July to Sunday 31 July

Meet Marc and Bella Chagall! The flying lovers of Vitebsk! Partners in life and on canvas, Marc and Bella are immortalised as the picture of romance. But whilst on canvas they flew, in life they walked through some of the most devastating times in history.

Daniel Jamieson's The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk traces this young couple as they navigate the Pogroms, the Russian Revolution, and each other. Emma Rice's final production as Kneehigh's Artistic Director is drawn in a theatrical language as fluid as Chagall's paintings, and woven throughout with music and dance inspired by the Russian Jewish tradition. __________________________________________________________________________________

FUP

Based on the novel by Jim Dodge

Adapted and directed by Simon Harvey

Saturday 6 August to Sunday 21 August

One hundred year old Grandaddy Jake and his enormous grandson Tiny live life on the fringes, drinking whiskey, building fences, boasting of immortality. But then, Fup arrives - an ass-kicking, web-footed, feathery sonofagun. See, Fup is a duck. A very big duck. A very big duck indeed... And she is going to change their world forever.

FUP is a big-hearted, uproarious modern fable about family, love and nature set in a weird and wild Cornwall not so different from this one. Featuring live, foot-stomping music, quacking puppetry and Kneehigh's infamous eccentricity and charm, FUP is a story like no other.

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Shakespeare's Globe and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Nick Bagnall

Wednesday 24 to Sunday 28 August

When Valentine plots an elopement, Proteus betrays him and Valentine is banished and joins some outlaws in the forest. What are the chances that he'll be pursued by Silvia, and Silvia by Proteus, and Proteus by Julia, and that all will be waited upon - after a fashion - by their servants Speed and Launce and even Launce's dog, Crab?

This riotous new touring production from the Globe is led by a joyful ensemble of players who will delight with songs, romance and chaos, and hurl Shakespeare's anarchic comedy into the 21st century.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a touring production from Shakespeare's Globe and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse.

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For press information and reviewing tickets please contact Clióna Roberts on 020 7704 6224 / 07754 756504 or e-mail cliona@crpr.co.uk

Listing and Ticket Information

Tickets on General Sale from 10 March 2016, Kneehigh Friends on sale from 29 February 2016

All performances take place in the Asylum Tent, The Lost Gardens of Heligan,

Pentewan, St Austell, Cornwall PL26 6EN.

14 July - 28 August 2016

Tuesday - Saturday Evenings, 7.45pm

Thursday & Sunday Matinees, 3pm

Online booking: www.hallforcornwall.co.uk and search 'Kneehigh Asylum'

Phone: 01872 262466

Hall for Cornwall Box Office (Lines open 10am - 5pm, Monday -Saturday. Phone booking closes 3pm on the day of each performance).

In person: Pop into the Hall for Cornwall Box Office on Lemon Quay in Truro

(9.30am - 5pm, Monday - Saturday).

A £1.50 handling charge will be added to each transaction.

Prices

Show Ticket Show and Garden entry

Earlybird Adult £19 £26

Adult £24 £32

U26s &

Concessions** £14 £18

Over 65s £22 £29

Two show deal £42

Three show deal £57

*Earlybird tickets are available for all performances and are bookable until 15 April 2016 inclusive.

** NUS, JSA, ESA & PIP. Proof of eligibility is required.

Reserved seating

For the first time, the Asylum tent will have reserved seating, so you will be allocated specific seats when you book your tickets. This means no more queueing to nab the 'best seats' and more time picnicking or at the bar pre-show!

Pass it on £14

Buy an extra ticket and share the excitement and wonderment of our shows with someone who wouldn't otherwise be able to experience a Kneehigh performance.

Working with community, voluntary and social organisations, Kneehigh's Rambles reaches out to local people from all walks of life by providing free tickets, running workshops and offering opportunities to work with artists.

• Kneehigh

Kneehigh are a UK based theatre company with a local, national and international profile. For over 30 years they have created vigorous, popular and challenging theatre and perform with the joyful anarchy that audiences have come to expect from this ground-breaking company. Kneehigh tell stories. Based in Cornwall in breath-taking barns on the south coast they create theatre of humanity on an epic and tiny scale. Kneehigh work with an ever-changing ensemble of performers, artists, technicians, administrators, makers and musicians and are passionate about their multi-disciplined creative process.

www.kneehigh.co.uk

• The Asylum

In 2010 Kneehigh launched The Asylum, a beautiful and flexible nomadic structure, which means they now have a venue to call home as well as being one of the leading touring theatre companies in the UK. The Asylum returns to Cornwall's Lost Gardens of Heligan in 2016 for its sixth season.

Visitors to The Asylum will be able to enjoy the atmosphere of the gardens and have supper at the Heligan Restaurant, with produce from the garden and estate. Inside the Asylum tent there will be a fully licensed bar and hot drinks and cakes - open before and after the show and at the interval.

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