The Playground Theatre today announces its first Christmas show with the world premiere of a new stage production of the much-loved French children's novella The Little Prince.
When a pilot crashes his plane in the Sahara Desert, he meets the little prince who has left his home on Asteroid B612 to take a journey across the universe in order to understand how to love his rose. Caught between life and death, together they discover the secret of faith, friendship and the fragility of the human heart.
Written by pioneering pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince tells an extraordinary tale about childhood, friendship, love, loss and faith. The novella is the second most widely translated book ever, after the Bible. It has been translated into 300 languages and dialects and, in France, it has been voted the best book of the 20th Century.
Saint-Exupéry who had many near-fatal air crashes himself, including one in the Libyan desert, disappeared during a reconnaissance flight for the Allied Forces in 1944. Many years later, his plane was found in the Mediterranean Sea. It is believed that he was shot down.
In this new translation by Ros and Chloe Schwartz, The Little Prince is performed by London based German actor/director Martin Oelbermann. Employing a minimalist approach, some circus skills and physical theatre, the work invites its audience to stay true to their childhood dreams and to carefully protect the inner child. It is a passionate call to nurture a child's talent and a reminder of how we are all more in need of praise for trying rather than for succeeding.
RADA trained Martin Oelbermann was recently seen as Swiss wizarding ambassador Heinrich Eberstadt in
David Yates' feature film adaptation of J K Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and on the stage in
Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood at Jermyn Street Theatre, in a collaboration with then Children's Laureate Chris Riddell. Throughout his career, Martin has worked mostly with narrative and poetic text such as Venus & Adonis and Rape of Lucrece by
William Shakespeare, The Iliad by Homer, Tristan and Isolde by Gottfried von Strassburg, Maud by Alfred Tennyson, Women as Lovers by Elfriede Jelinek, The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank, the journals of holocaust survivor Victor Klemperer and the poetry of Ossip Mandelstan, to name but a few. He has also worked extensively in youth theatre, staging a number of musicals, jazz and youth operas, in co-productions with Clara-Schuman-Conservatoire in Düsseldorf.
Alison Neighbour trained as a designer at RADA. She designs for traditional theatre spaces and outdoor and environment-based work. Recent work includes: Hanging in the Balance (mac, Birmingham); Constellations and A Peter Rabbit Tale (Singapore Repertory Theatre); Ross & Rachel (UK tour); Spine (UK Tour); The Curtain (Young Vic); De-Railed (HOME, Manchester); Phenomenal People (Fuel, UK Tour); Crazy Gary's Mobile Disco (Chapter Arts Centre & Wales tour); I Told You This Would Happen (ARC, Stockton & UK tour); Lost in the Neuron Forest (Wales Millennium Centre & UK tour); The Eyes Have It (Imagine Watford Festival); Followers (Southwark Playhouse); Used Blood Junkyard (Arcola); Square Bubble (InTransit & National Theatre)
Adam Lansberry recently graduated from RADA where he specialised in video design.
The Little Prince is the second production at The Playground Theatre in Ladbroke Grove following Picasso by Terry D'Alfonso, which opens in early November. The theatre's mission is to work with both established and emerging artists in the UK and Internationally. The ethos is one of cross-fertilization between different forms and different cultures with the aim of creating work that is bold and imaginative, whilst fully engaging the rich diversity of the community of which it is part. Last week it was announced that The Playground Theatre has been nominated for
Peter Brook/
Royal Court Theatre Support Award 2017.
Comments
To post a comment, you must
register and
login.
