Dick King-Smith's BABE, THE SHEEP-PIG Returns to the Stage
By: Liz Cearns Sep. 27, 2016
Meet the lovable Babe in a heart-warming tale of friendship, adventure and bravery.
When Babe arrives at Hogget's Farm he is taken in by the trusty sheep-dog Fly, and soon discovers a talent for herding. With the help of his adopted Mum, the polite piglet soon wins over the most suspicious of sheep. But can a small pig make it in a dog's world, and when his farmyard friends are in trouble can Babe save the day?
Dick King-Smith's The Sheep-Pig was first published in 1983, and has since been translated into fifteen languages, as well as winning King-Smith the Guardian Children's Fiction Award. In 1995 it was adapted for the big screen as the film Babe, which received huge critical and box office success. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won one for Best Visual Effects, as well as winning the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy.
Babe, The Sheep-Pig is adapted for the stage by Olivier Award-winning playwright David Wood OBE, who is best known for his adaptations of classic family titles including Goodnight Mister Tom, James and the Giant Peach, The BFG and The Tiger Who Came to Tea. David also wrote the book and lyrics for new musical The Go-Between, currently playing in the West End.
David Wood said: "I am delighted that Babe, The Sheep-Pig is returning. It is a wonderful novel which I took huge pleasure in adapting. Good luck to the whole team on this new production!"
Babe, The Sheep-Pig is directed by Michael Fentiman, whose productions include The Taming of the Shrew and Titus Andronicus (RSC) and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Kensington Gardens) which he co-directed with Rupert Goold.
The residents of Hogget's Farm will be brought to life by beautiful hand-crafted puppets, created by award-winning puppet designer Max Humphries (Chief Puppet Designer, Cirque de Soleil) and Dik Downey, with the ensemble cast delivering masterful puppetry by puppetry director Matthew Forbes (Associate Director in Puppetry & Movement, War Horse).
The cast of actor-musicians features Emma Barclay (You Me Bum Bum Train) as Mrs Hogget, Olivier Award-nominated Nicola Blackman (Little Shop of Horrors and The Lion King, West End) as Fly, Oliver Grant (War Horse, National Theatre) as Babe/Sheep and Ben Ingles (Romeo and Juliet, RSC) as Farmer Hogget. The cast also features Claire Greenway (Sister Act, London Palladium), Jacqui Sanchez (Shrek the Musical and Avenue Q, West End), Lucy Thomas (Bugsy Malone, Lyric Hammersmith) and Sam Wilmott (Wicked and Lord of the Rings, West End).
Babe, The Sheep-Pig is presented by Tom O' Connell Productions (Million Dollar Quartet, Hairspray, UK Tours) and Polka Theatre. It is directed by Michael Fentiman with puppetry direction by Matthew Forbes, costume and scenic design by Madeleine Girling, puppet design by Max Humphries and Dik Downey, lighting design by Jack Knowles, sound design by George Dennis and original music by Barnaby Rose. Casting is by David Grindrod Associates.
Suitable for all ages.
TOUR SCHEDULE
Friday 25 November 2016 - Sunday 5 February 2017
POLKA THEATRE, London
Box Office www.polkatheatre.com | 020 8543 4888
Wednesday 15 - Saturday 18 February 2017
West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
Tour press night: Thursday 16 February, 7.00pm
Box Office www.wyp.org.uk | 0113 213 7700
Monday 20 - Tuesday 21 February 2017
THEATRE BY THE LAKE, Keswick
Box Office www.theatrebythelake.com | 017687 74411
ON SALE SOON
Thursday 23 - Sunday 26 February 2017
DEVONSHIRE PARK THEATRE, Eastbourne
Box Office www.eastbournetheatres.co.uk | 01323 412 000
Friday 3 - Sunday 5 March 2017
THEATRE ROYAL, Margate
Box Office www.theatreroyalmargate.com | 01843 292795
ON SALE SOON
Monday 13 - Wednesday 15 March 2017
HALL FOR CORNWALL, Truro
Box Office www.hallforcornwall.co.uk | 01872 262466
ON SALE SOON
Tuesday 21 - Wednesday 22 March 2017
WYCOMBE SWAN, High Wycombe
Box Office www.wycombeswan.co.uk | 01494 512 000
Friday 24 - Sunday 26 March 2017
CONNAUGHT THEATRE, Worthing
Box Office www.worthingtheatres.co.uk | 01903 206 206
Saturday 8 - Sunday 9 April 2017
THE PAVILION, Bournemouth
Box Office www.bournemouthpavilion.co.uk | 0844 576 3000
Tuesday 11 - Saturday 15 April 2017
THE LOWRY, Salford
Box Office www.thelowry.com | 0843 208 6000
Sunday 16 - Monday 17 April 2017
THEATRE ROYAL, Norwich
Box Office www.theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk | 01603 63 00 00
Saturday 22 - Sunday 23 April 2017
NORTHCOTT THEATRE, Exeter
Box Office www.exeternorthcott.co.uk | 01392 726363
Saturday 29 - Sunday 30 April 2017
WYVERN THEATRE, Swindon
Box Office www.swindontheatres.co.uk | 01793 524481
Wednesday 17 - Friday 19 May 2017
VENUE CYMRU, Llandudno
Box Office www.venuecymru.co.uk | 01492 872000
Saturday 20 - Sunday 21 May 2017
EMBASSY THEATRE, Skegness
Box Office www.embassytheatre.co.uk | 01507 613100
ON SALE SOON
Thursday 25 - Sunday 28 May 2017
ORCHARD THEATRE, Dartford
Box Office www.orchardtheatre.co.uk | 01322 220000
Tuesday 30 May - Sunday 4 June 2017
NUFFIELD THEATRE, Southampton
Box Office www.nuffieldtheatre.co.uk | 023 8067 1771
Monday 12 - Wednesday 14 June 2017
THEATRE ROYAL, Newcastle
Box Office www.theatreroyal.co.uk | 08448 11 21 21
ON SALE SOON
Sunday 25 - Wednesday 28 June 2017
CHURCHILL THEATRE, Bromley
Box Office www.churchilltheatre.co.uk | 020 3285 6000
Thursday 6 - Sunday 9 July 2016
GRAND THEATRE, Blackpool
Box Office www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk | 01253 290190
Monday 17 - Wednesday 19 July 2017
HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE, Aberdeen
Box Office www.aberdeenperformingarts.com | 01224 641122
ON SALE SOON
Friday 21 - Sunday 23 July 2017
THE ALBAN ARENA, St Albans
Box Office www.alban-arena.co.uk | 01727 844488
Thursday 3 - Saturday 5 August 2017
GRAND THEATRE, Swansea
Box Office www.swansea.gov.uk/swanseagrandtheatre | 01792 475715
ON SALE SOON
Monday 14 - Wednesday 16 August 2017
PALACE THEATRE, Southend
Box Office www.southendtheatres.org.uk | 01702 351135
ON SALE SOON
Thursday 17 - Saturday 19 August 2017
THEATRE ROYAL, Bury St Edmunds
Box Office www.theatreroyal.org | 01284 769505
Monday 21 - Wednesday 23 August 2017
THE HAWTH, Crawley
Box Office www.parkwoodtheatres.co.uk/thehawth | 01293 553636
Thursday 24 - Sunday 27 August 2017
WATFORD COLOSSEUM
Box Office www.watfordcolosseum.co.uk | 01923 571 102
Thursday 31 August - Sunday 3 September 2017
Box Office www.theatreroyal.com | 01752 267222
ON SALE SOON
Friday 8 - Sunday 10 September 2017
KING'S THEATRE, Edinburgh
Box Office www.edtheatres.com/kings | 0131 529 6000
FURTHER DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED
NOTES TO EDITORS
Dick King-Smith - Original Story
Dick King-Smith is best known for The Sheep-Pig (1983), or Babe the Gallant Pig in the US. It was adapted as the movie Babe (1995) and translations have been published in fifteen languages. He was awarded an Honorary Master of Education degree by the University of the West of England in 1999 and appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours.
King-Smith's first book was The Fox Busters, published in 1978 while he was living and teaching in Farmborough. He was one of Britain's most prolific authors and wrote over a hundred books. In later life he lived in Queen Charlton, a small farming village near Bristol, contributing to the maintenance and conservation of the local area as the vice-president of the Avon Wildlife Trust.
He presented a feature on animals on TV-AM's children's programme Rub a Dub Dub and also appeared regularly (in a similar capacity) on the similarly named Saturday morning TV series Rub-a-Dub Tub
'Writing my books is like handing out presents. Giving children pleasure gives you a wonderful sort of Father Christmassy feeling.' Dick King-Smith, October 1995
David Wood - Play Adaptation
David began writing as a student at Oxford University in the sixties.
He wrote his first play for children in 1967 and has since written over sixty more. They are performed all over the world and include The Gingerbread Man (nine London seasons), The Owl And The Pussycat Went To See... (six London seasons, co-written with Sheila Ruskin), The Selfish Shellfish, The See-Saw Tree, Save The Human (from the story he wrote with cartoonist Tony Husband), The Ideal Gnome Expedition and The Plotters Of Cabbage Patch Corner.
His stage adaptations of well-known books include Dick King-Smith's Babe The Sheep-Pig, Roald Dahl's The?BFG and The Witches (both of which played long tours and two West End seasons), The Twits, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, Danny the Champion of the World And George's Marvellous Medicine, HRH The Prince of Wales' The Old Man Of Lochnagar, Michael Foreman's Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish, Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski's Meg and Mog Show (five London seasons for Unicorn Theatre), Philippa Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden (which Unicorn Theatre played?on tour, in the West End and on Broadway) and Judith Kerr's The Tiger Who Came To Tea.
He was dubbed 'the national children's dramatist' by Irving Wardle in The Times and published, to rave reviews, Theatre for Children: Guide to Writing, Adapting, Directing and Acting (Faber), co-written with Janet Grant, which has become required reading on the subject in the UK and the US, and is now published in China. He won the Olivier Award in 2013 for his adaptation of Goodnight Mister Tom.
Tom O' Connell Productions - Producer
Current Productions: Hairspray the musical (UK Tour), The Boys In The Band (UK Tour), Babe, The Sheep Pig (London and UK Tour), Million Dollar Quartet (UK Tour), Ray Cooney's Out Of Order (UK Tour), Raising Martha (Park Theatre), The Wedding Singer the musical (UK Tour).
Past production credits include: Alan Bennett's Single Spies (UK Tour), Someone Who'll Watch Over Me (Chichester Festival Theatre), The King's Speech (UK Tour 2015); Ghost Stories (Arts Theatre, West End 2014-2015); Beautiful Thing 2015 (UK Tour); Another Country (Trafalgar Studios, West End/UK Tour 2014), Breeders (St James Theatre, 2014); Step 9 [Of 12] (Trafalgar Studios, West End).
In development: A new stage adaptation of Zoe Heller's thriller Notes On A Scandal.
In 2013, Tom produced the critically acclaimed and award- winning production of Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing marking the play's twentieth anniversary and is now available to download across the world as a HD filmed play, in partnership with DigitalTheatre.com
Polka Theatre - Producer
Polka is one of the few theatres in the UK dedicated exclusively to young audiences aged 0 - 14. Based in Wimbledon since 1979, Polka creates theatre to spark the imagination and fuel a sense of discovery in all children. Every year over 90,000 people experience inspiring world-class theatre at Polka.
With a thriving creative learning programme, workshops, storytelling sessions and a welcoming café, playground and garden, there's always space at Polka to play, laugh, discover and create.
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