LA STRADA to Play at Belgrade Theatre Prior to West End

Federico Fellini's 1957 Oscar-winning film, La Strada (The Road), is being brought to life on stage in a spectacular new production for 2017. La Strada will make its UK premiere at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre before embarking on a national tour and transferring to London at The Other Palace, the newest addition to Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Theatre Group.

This brand new adaptation directed by Olivier Award nominee Sally Cookson (Jane Eyre National Theatre, Hetty Feather West End), will feature a cast of multi-talented actor-musicians and boasts a beautiful score by composer Benji Bower. It's a soul-searching story filled with beauty, sadness, humour and acute observation.

La Strada tells the tragic and tender tale of wide-eyed Gelsomina who is sold by her impoverished mother to the brutish strongman Zampano, a travelling sideshow performer. Their journey through the Italian countryside leads them to a ragtag touring circus where they meet Il Matto the free-spirited tightrope walker, who tries to rekindle Gelsomina's broken spirit.

Director Sally Cookson said, "Felini's iconic film has always fascinated me and the thought of using it as a starting point to make a piece of theatre was one I couldn't resist. A folk-tale like odyssey - this story sees three lost souls travelling 'the road' and searching in different ways to find meaning in their lives. Using physical storytelling, music and movement, we will be attempting to find a theatricality to re imagine this story of human suffering, longing and redemption."

Awarded the honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1993, Italian director Federico Fellini changed the face of film-making forever with his seminal films such as La Strada, La Dolce Vita, 8½, Nights of Cabiria and Satyricon. Marking 60 years since La Strada, starring Anthony Quinn, won the 'Best Foreign Language Film' Academy award, Fellini's cinematic masterpiece, hailed as "one of the most influential films ever made" (the American Film Institute), will now see its first ever UK stage adaptation.

La Strada brings together a multi-skilled cast of performers and musicians including Audrey Brisson (Cirque de Soleil's Quidam, Kneehigh's The Cast of the Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, Dead Dog in a Suitcase, The Wild Bride and National Theatre's The Elephantom) as Gelsomina; Stuart Goodwin (Sally Cookson's Sleeping Beauty; Kneehigh's Tristan & Yseult) as Zampano and Bart Soroczynski (Cirque de Loin's The Fool & The Princess; ENO's Benvenuto Cellini; RSC's The Merry Wives of Windsor) as Il Matto.

Set to be a truly theatrical feast, the production even has its own Magic Consultant, Peter Clifford who has performed internationally and has recently returned from Las Vegas where he worked alongside David Blane. The show is being brought to the stage by the Belgrade Theatre with Kenny Wax Ltd, Cambridge Arts Theatre and Bristol Old Vic.

Multi Olivier award-winning producer Kenny Wax says, "I have been trying to mount a stage production of La Strada for many years. When Sally Cookson told me it was her favourite film, the stars seemed to align more perfectly than I could have ever dreamed. And that is only half the back story."

La Strada will run on the Belgrade Theatre's Main Stage from Sat 11 to Sat 18 Feb. Tickets are available now priced from £19 and can be booked by calling the Belgrade Box Office team on 024 7655 3055 or online at www.belgrade.co.uk.

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