Turtle Company Presents JOYCE

Told through puppetry, music and live magic - and by an international team of creatives from the UK, the USA and Korea - this quirky family show features two unlikely accomplices who fall into a children's book. When Dad is too busy working to play with his daughter Joyce and her pet hamster Bo-bo, he suddenly finds himself transported to a foreign yet familiar land. Along with Bo-bo, who is now huge and chatty, he meets a host of strange characters including a stick of dynamite who could explode at any moment, a hard-headed futuristic spacewoman, a daydreaming medieval prince and a giant that yearns to be small. Joyce is an innovative and dazzling family show about children's imaginations and a world of unending curiosity.

Joyce is a collaboration between co-directors Yossef K. Junghan from Korea and UK-based director Stevan Mijailovic, and writers David Couter from the USA and Sungye Suk from Korea. In addition, they have been working with award-winning magician Minsoo Park as both a creator and a performer, and whose credits include Manon at Korea National Opera. Minsoo Park has won awards for his magic in Korea, Japan, China andFrance, and from Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques. The production will draw on aspects from all three cultures to create a unique blend of music, visuals and text, which will be performed in English.

Co-director Yossef K. Junghan said, "I wanted to create something my family would love to watch: puppetry, music, magic and comedy within a beautiful heartfelt story."

Co-director Stevan Mijailovic added, "Yossef K.Junghan wanted originally to make a piece of theatre that was for everyone and it was through working out what that meant that lead us to making this "kids"/ family show and in a way guided the narrative of the story. The result is a story that is for children but it is also looking at "grown-ups" straight in the eye and asking them to consider what is holding them back and what have they forgotten that made them so happy as a child."

Yossef K. Junghan is one of Korea's most innovative theatre makers whose most recent show Q won Best New Play of the Year from Arts Council of South Korea. Following the Fringe, he'll be co-directing Big Fish the Musical in Seoul alongside Broadway director Scott Shwartz. Stevan Mijailovic's credits include Contact at the Kiln, and he was last at the Fringe in 2014 with Woyzeck with Time Zone Theatre company. The pair recently collaborated on Caddywhompus in the New York Fringe Festival, an original play by Joyce writer David Couter.

Joyce has been written by David Couter and Sungye Suk. David Couter is an American actor and writer who spent the summer of 2015 in Seoul to write musical Special 5 alongside Joyce creatives Yossef K. Junghan and composer Ahreum Cho; the show was awarded first place by the Korean Arts Council. Sungye Suk is a writer and director whose previous children's work includes Adventure of Little Santa Pins, Carbot and Turning Me Card in Korea.

Turtle Company is a Korean theatre company producing unique, inventive work that fully embraces the possibilities of the performing arts. Shows cover various genres including family musicals and classical fusion opera. The company ethos is to create high-quality art that provides an opportunity for audiences to share hopes and dreams in order to make a better world. Turtle Company's previous shows include classic musical Cinderella, Prince Gandaro's Beautiful Sound Travel and family musical Welcome Mum.

31 Jul - 26 Aug (performed every day), 11.25 - 12.25

Previews 31 Jul - 1 Aug: £10

Mon - Fri: £11 (£10 concs)

Sat & Sun: £12 (£11 concs)

www.assemblyfestival.com | 0131 623 3030

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