Unicorn Theatre Announces New Season- Including WINTER'S TALE, I, MALVOLIO and TEAR THIEF

Building on the success of her first season, Artistic Director Purni Morell continues the Unicorn's commitment to pushing the boundaries in theatre for audiences aged 2 to 21.

Morell will be working with some of Europe's most inventive and dynamic theatre makers. Artists include Chris Goode, David Greig, Ignace Cornelissen, Tim Crouch, E V Crowe, Hannah Ringham and Ansuman Biswas, and spoken word artist Polarbear. The Unicorn also welcomes the return of Oily Cart in a co-production with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

This season also sees a number of extra events including readings from some well known names including Juliet Stevenson reading from The Tear Thief and David Walliams reading from his much anticipated new book, released in Autumn.

In a season of revivals, reworkings and world premieres, the Unicorn is quickly establishing itself as a venue for exciting and enquiring work for younger audiences, addressing issues with wit, vitality and imagination.

Highlights include award-winning playwright David Greig's compelling account of one of the 20th century's unsung heroes in Dr Korczak's Example; a refreshing and contemporary introduction to Shakespeare with A Winter's Tale by Belgian playwright Ignace Cornelissen and Tim Crouch's acclaimed one-man show I, Malvolio; Douglas Rintoul will direct a new adaptation of 1001 Nights; Liar Liar, a new play by E V Crowe. At Christmas, a new adaptation will be staged of Mark Twain's classic children's story The Prince and The Pauper for all the family and for the very young Oily Cart and RSC's In A Pickle.

A Chris Goode & Company and Unicorn production
MONKEY BARS
Directed by Chris Goode
Tue 25 – Sun 30 September PRESS NIGHT: TUESDAY 25 SEPTEMBER AT 7.30pm

Award-winning writer Chris Goode asked thirty 8-10 year olds to talk about their lives, their thoughts, their world.

In Monkey Bars their words are spoken by adults. Not adults playing children, but adults playing adults, in adult situations. Monkey Bars is a revelatory verbatim show for adults about children that is funny, touching and endlessly surprising.
For Adults

A Studio ORKA production
WOESTERDAM
by Studio Orka
Fri 21 – Sun 23 September -Coming soon to a secret location to be confirmed shortly

Come and hear the story of the Woesterdam gang, who fought a world of painful silence and violent rage, armed only with clenched buttocks, the love meter and the sadness sieve, and how everything came right because of the longest kiss in the world.

Studio Orka are a Belgian collective of designers and actors who make unusual and touching site-specific shows in out of the way places.
Age guide: 8-12

A Unicorn production
A WINTER'S TALE
by Ignace Cornelissen
based on The Winter's Tale by Shakespeare
Directed by Purni Morell
Wed 19 September – Fri 16 November PRESS NIGHT: TUES 2 OCTOBER 7pm

A group of actors are performing The Winter's Tale at the Unicorn. But it's not going well.

Based on Shakespeare's late comedy, this hilarious new play turns the world of The Winter's Tale on its head. It's a play within a play, in which four performers present Shakespeare's story of Kings and Queens and bears in the forest – a world of petty jealousies and playground rites, in which it's always the servants who draw the short straw.
Age guide: 7-10

A Unicorn Production
DR KORCZAK'S EXAMPLE
by David Greig
Directed by Ria Parry
Sun 23 September – Tues 13 November PRESS NIGHT: THUR 27 SEPTEMBER 7pm

Dr Korczak's Example is set in the final days of an orphanage in the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw, where food is scarce, tempers rise, and everyone wants to survive.

Award-winning playwright David Greig tells this powerful tale of Korczak's refusal to abandon the orphanage through the eyes of two of the orphans, and focuses on Korczak's insistence that everyone should live by the key values of tolerance and respect even in the face of injustice.
Age guide:11-13

I, MALVOLIO
By Tim Crouch
Directed by Karl James and a smith
Designed by Graeme Gilmour
Wed 3 October – Sun 11 November PRESS NIGHT: FRIDAY 5 October at 1.45pm

Tim Crouch re-imagines Twelfth Night in a brilliant one-man show that invites the audience to explore self-knowledge, bullying and shame through the eyes of Shakespeare's most pent-up steward.

Tim Crouch is one of Britain's most unusual and innovative theatre-makers. I, Malvolio is the fourth of his solo Shakespeare plays for family and younger audiences.
Age guide: 13 upwards

A Little Angel Theatre production
HANDA'S SURPRISE Adapted from the book by Eileen Browne
Tue 9 – Thu 11 October

A blend of physical performance, puppetry, live music and song combine to create this intimate, magical production with audience participation. Back by popular demand this October to mark Black History Month.
Age guide: 2-5

A Travelling Light production
THE MYSTERIOUS VANISHMENT OF POBBY AND DINGAN
By Finegan Kruckemeyer Adapted from Pobby and Dingan by Ben Rice

Tue 30 October – Sat 3 November

Where do you start looking for something you can't even see? Based on Ben Rice's acclaimed debut novel about how one boy's mission to save his family unites an outback opal mining community
Age guide: 9+

A Theatre Hullabaloo and Berry Theatre production
THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKERS
In a new version by Mike Kenny
Tue 6 - Thu 8 November

Live music, puppetry, physical storytelling and a sprinkling of Elf magic combine to tell this classic tale.
Age guide: 3-7

Synergy Theatre Project presents
BURNING BIRD
By John Donnelly
Wed 14 – Sat 17 November

Set against the backdrop of the London riots, Burning Bird explores what it means to be young in the city.
Age guide: 14 +

A Little Angel Theatre production in association with the Royal Exchange Theatre
THE TEAR THIEF
Adapted from the book by Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy
Wed 21 November – Sun 2 December

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy's book The Tear Thief is magically brought to life in this beautiful adaptation, with stunning puppetry from the Little Angel Theatre and live music.
Age guide: 4-7

An Oily Cart /Royal Shakespeare Company co-production
IN A PICKLE
Thu 6 December – Sun 6 January

Unicorn favourites Oily Cart return to the Clore Studio with In a Pickle, a voyage of discovery through the landscapes of Shakespeare's imagination for the very young.
Age guide: 2-5

A Unicorn Production
THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER
by Mark Twain, adapted by Jemma Kennedy
Directed by Selina Cartmell
Sun 25 November - Sun 13 January PRESS NIGHT THURSDAY 29 NOVEMBER 7pm

Set in a Tudor London so vibrant you can smell the potato-peelings, poor Tom Canty has a chance meeting with the young heir to the throne, Prince Edward – and by pure coincidence they find they look almost identical.

Mark Twain's classic tale of confused identities tells the story of what happens when the one is mistaken for the other: Tom Canty is forced into the world of the court and power, while Edward is cast down into a world of poverty and thieves, from which he must fight his way back to the Court. Part traditional and part fantastical, a riotous show for all the family this Christmas.

Age guide: 6 upwards, for all the family

A Unicorn Production
LIAR, LIAR
By E V Crowe
Directed by Blanche McIntyre
Thu 31 January – Wed 6 March PRESS NIGHT: THURSDAY 1 FEB 7pm

Acclaimed writer E V Crowe's latest play is a contemporary tale about the world of Grace, a young girl who knows the truth can be dangerous.

E V Crowe is one of the most exciting young playwrights around. Nominated for Most Promising Newcomer at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2011, she won critical acclaim for her plays Kin at the Royal Court and is widely regarded as an inspiring voice for and about teenagers' experience in Britain today.

Director Blanche McIntyre was the winner of the Critics' Circle Most Promising Newcomer Award for Accolade and Foxfinder, both at the Finborough Theatre.
Age 13-16

A BAC production
THE PRESENT
Conceived by Hannah Ringham
Created by Ansuman Biswas and Hannah Ringham
Wed 13 – Sun 17 February

Join theatre-makers Hannah Ringham and Ansuman Biswas in a glorious participatory theatrical game exploring the mystery and pleasure of wrapping, receiving, giving and sharing.
Age 4-6

A Unicorn Production
1001 NIGHTS
Directed by Douglas Rintoul
Tue 5 February – Sun 17 March PRESS NIGHT: Thu 7 February 7pm

What do the old stories mean to us today? Using everyday objects that you might find in your bedroom, the bookish Shahrazad transports her sister and father night after night to an imagined world of kings, viziers, and jinns. After three years of fantastical flights, her stories help them to make sense of the world they live in here in London. Douglas Rintoul directs this modern adaptation of the classic Persian and Arabian stories for younger audiences.

Age guide: 6-9

A Tangere Arts and The Royal Exchange Theatre production
A THOUSAND SLIMY THINGS
Based on Coleridge's classic poem The Rime of The Ancient Mariner
Wed 30 January – Thursday 7 February

Coleridge's classic poem is transformed into a swashbuckling adventure, threaded with live music and highly physical comedy by Tangere Arts, who have previously delighted Unicorn audiences with Hood in the Wood and The Tin Soldier.
Age guide: 10+

A Freehand Theatre Production
LITTLE RED…YOU KNOW WHO!
Fri 8 – Sun 10 February

Taking a well-known traditional story (you know which!), this spell-binding play for young children follows a magical path through the woods. Freehand Theatre creates a memorable and reassuring journey with its delightful use of puppetry, colour and specially composed music.
Age guide: 3-5

An Imaginart (Barcelona) production
SENSACIONAL
Tue 19 – Sun 24 February
Performed on a white square, watch as your child puts on a white suit and becomes part of a digital world of ladybirds, shapes, squiggles and squarks that won't keep still, no matter how hard you try to catch them.
Adults free.
Age guide: 18 months – 4 years

A BAC Production
MOUTH OPEN, STORY JUMP OUT
Conceived & created by Polarbear
Tue 5 – Fri 15 March

When is a story a story and when is it a lie? Everyone who has ever been at school knows you need to know the difference. One of the UK's leading spoken word artists, Polarbear (aka Steven Camden), performs a vivid and absorbing show about the craft of storytelling.
Age 9-11

To post a comment, you must register and login.