New Theatre Royal to Welcome TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT This October

Vibrant and innovative theatre company Creative Cow promises an evening of intoxicating adventure in an adaptation of Graham Greene's most entertaining of books 'Travels With My Aunt'. Described by Greene as 'the only book I have ever written for the fun of it', the play takes its audience on a whirlwind journey, plotting one very ordinary man's extraordinary journey of self-discovery.

Touring venues around the UK following a hugely successful Spring tour the play comes to the New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth on 10 - 12 October.

Creative Cow chose to tour Travels with my Aunt to mark this year's 25th anniversary of Graham Greene's death. Just four actors represent 20 colourful characters - each playing a part in retired, rather boring, suburban bank manager Henry Pulling's great transformation.

The unlikely hero of the play - Henry - leads a quiet, risk-free and dull, bachelor life, effectively retired from work, life and the world. Until, that is, his eccentric Aunt Augusta persuades him to travel with her to Brighton - then Paris, on to Istanbul and across the world to Paraguay. Through her he joins a shifty twilight society of pot-smoking hippies, war criminals, men from the CIA and hard core art smugglers. He puts his dull and predictable life behind him as he finds himself changing beyond recognition.

The storyline of Travels with my Aunt not only mirrors Greene's own real life obsession with travelling, often to the most dangerous spots on the planet, but also takes the audience on a whirlwind tour of the fictional world created by Greene in his seventeen previous novels. Other aspects of Greene's life; his secret service work, his brushes with criminals, his constant itinerancy, among others, are all represented in the story. Unlike Greene's other works which are inextricably concerned with the future of the soul and the afterlife, Travels with My Aunt explores the here and now.

Says actor and co-founder member of Creative Cow Theatre Company, Katherine Senior; 'We love the way Travels with my Aunt traces two voyages in parallel - one a physical cross-continental journey by plane, train and boat and the other a mind-blowing, eye-opening journey of self-discovery. Henry couldn't be more different from Greene himself, who was adventurous, risk-loving and unconventional - but can we perhaps see some similarities by the end? It's a great pleasure to be touring this work by one of our favourite authors in this anniversary year.'

Creative Cow is a touring theatre company created in The Farm yards of Devon in 2007 by founders Amanda Knott, Matthew Parish and Katherine Senior. Their aim has always been to present the most exciting, daring and fun night out possible, touring the length and breadth of the country and performing in spaces ranging from the very large to the most intimate. The company's huge successes to date have included Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, BranDon Thomas's Charley's Aunt, Dickens' Hard Times, Harold Pinter's The Lover, John Osborne's Look Back in Anger, Sheridan's The Rivals and Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. For Christmas 2015, Creative Cow presented a magical new adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Travels with my Aunt is produced by Creative Cow in association with Malvern Theatres, adapted for stage by Giles Havergal and directed by Amanda Knott.

IF YOU GO:

TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT

New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth

10 - 12 October

Times: 7:30pm with 2.30pm matinee Weds.

Prices: £24 (concessions available)

Age: 12yrs+

Running Time: 2hrs 20mins including interval

Box Office: 023 9264 9000

More info at www.newtheatreroyal.com/event/travels-with-my-aunt or www.creativecow.co.uk

TOUR DATES:

14 & 15 Sept Key Theatre, Peterborough

16 & 17 Sept Brewhouse, Taunton

20-24 Sept Blackpool Grand

26 - 28 Sept Theatre Chipping Norton

4 - 6 October Cast, Doncaster

10 - 12 October New Theatre Royal Portsmouth

17 - 22 October Theatre Royal Windsor

Creative Cow is a touring theatre company founded in 2007 by three professional theatre practitioners: two actors and a skilled artistic director. The company is called Creative Cow because it was conceived on a cattle farm in Devon where productions are managed and rehearsed before touring.

Graham Greene (2 October 1904 - 3 April 1991) was an English novelist and author regarded by some as one of the great writers of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels, and of thrillers (or "entertainments" as he termed them). He was shortlisted, in 1967, for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Through 67 years of writings, which included over 25 novels, he explored the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world, often through a Catholic perspective. Greene had a hunger to escape the ordinary and his need for adventure led him to travel widely, visiting many of the world's least safe countries.

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