Unicorn Announces Purni Morell's Last Season For Autumn And Beyond
By: Stephi Wild May. 15, 2018
The Unicorn announces plans for Autumn and beyond in another bold and eclectic season of work at the UK's leading theatre for young audiences.
Highlights include: the stage adaptation of Édouard Louis's international bestseller The End of Eddy, about a young man growing up gay in a working class French town; Philip Wilson's acclaimed adaptation of Philip Pullman's Grimm Tales for Christmas; an iconoclastic new commission with Het Paleis (Antwerp) by Lies Pauwels; two new productions based on Aesop's Fables; and an opera with former Artistic Director Purni Morell directing Dido in a co-production with English National Opera.
WESTON THEATRE
A Unicorn / Untitled Projects production
THE END OF EDDY
Based on the book En Finir avec Eddy Belleguele by Édouard Louis, adapted by Pamela Carter
Directed by Stewart Laing
Thursday 13 September - Saturday 6 October 2018
PRESS PERFORMANCE: TUESDAY 18 SEPTEMBER AT 7PM
CAN WE CREATE OUR OWN FREEDOM?
Visionary Scottish Director Stewart Laing (Creditors, Paul Bright's Confessions of a Justified Sinner) directs The End of Eddy, a remarkable new work based on the Édouard Louis's best-selling autobiography.
The production will open as part of the Edinburgh International Festival prior to a run at the Unicorn and will then tour the UK with dates to be announced shortly.
Born into poverty in an isolated village in rural France, a boy grows up amongst hard men and women living hard and violent lives. Bullied relentlessly for being gay, this is the story of Eddy's struggle to understand who he is, who he might become, and of his fight to escape.
Written when he was just 21 and combining vivid storytelling with frank reflections on sexuality, class and power, this new stage adaptation of Édouard Louis's autobiographical novel is filled with hope, love, lust and anger.
Full casting and tour details to be announced shortly.
Age guide: 16+ (contains explicit sexual references and frequent use of strong language)
Duration: Approx 1 hr 30 mins
En Finir avec Eddy Belleguele
Copyright © 2014, Édouard Louis.
All rights reserved.
First published by Editions du Seuil in 2014
CLORE THEATRE
A Battersea Arts Centre Production
MOUTH OPEN, STORY JUMP OUT
Conceived & created by Polarbear
Dramaturgy by Yael Shavit
Design by Marie Blunck
Tuesday 18 September - Saturday 27 October 2018
IT'S ALL IN YOU.
Polarbear makes things up: stories, jokes, adventures - he's a master maker-upper. But where did it all begin?
Mouth Open, Story Jump Out is about the moment that started it all, and how one little decision set off a chain reaction that changed his life forever. International assassins, secret codes, dog-eating boa constrictors and more emerge when a father disappears and a boy discovers a talent for telling tales.
An inspiring show about the creative potential inside all of us by one of the UK's most respected spoken-word artists.
Age guide: 8 - 11 / Duration: 1 hr
FOYLE STUDIO
A Unicorn Production
BABY SHOW
Created by Sarah Argent & Kevin Lewis
Directed by Sarah Argent
Ongoing from Tuesday 25 September 2018 (various dates throughout the year, see website)
IT'S BABY'S FIRST ADVENTURE.
The Unicorn continues to provide theatre for the very youngest audiences with the return of the sell-out Baby Show.
Baby Show gently explores the fun to be had in getting ready to go outside. Following the success of Scrunch and Seesaw, Baby Show (back for a third run with dates throughout the year) is a musical and sensory performance with captivating images and intriguing sounds that keeps eager, curious young minds rapt.
Age guide: strictly 6 - 18 months / Duration: 40 mins (incl. 15 mins of play at the end)
CLORE THEATRE
A Hetpaleis and Sontag Production (Ghent) with the Unicorn, Festival Tweetakt (Utrecht) and Het Nationale Theater (The Hague)
TRUTH OR DARE, BRITNEY OR GOOFY, NACHT UND NEBEL, JESUS CHRIST OR SUPERSTAR
Concept and direction by Lies Pauwels
Friday 19 October- Sunday 21 October 2018
WHOSE TRUTH?
The Unicorn collaborates again with the makers of The Hamilton Complex, co-commissioning their new work Truth or Dare in a UK première direct from Antwerp.
Lies Pauwels brings together seven young adults who all have emotional or psychological vulnerabilities, three super-models and one priest. Together, we explore the demons we wrestle with, as individuals and as a world.
Pauwels' work is challenging, perceptive and authentic. In this piece, she pushes the boundaries of truth just that little bit further, creating a world in which nothing is obvious, yet everything is recognisable.
Age guide: 16 - adult / Duration: Approx 1 hr 50 mins
WESTON THEATRE
A Laika (Belgium) Production
ON THE ROAD
Created and directed by Michai Geyzen
Tuesday 23 October - Sunday 28 October 2018
FIND YOUR PLACE IN THE WORLD.
Some people feel at home wherever they are. Others spend their whole life looking, wandering, longing for a place to put down roots and call 'home'. But what exactly makes a home, what does it mean?
On The Road is a wordless story told using sound, dance and movement to explore what it feels like to be a refugee and the universal need we have to belong.
Age guide: 6 - 12 / Duration: 50 mins
WESTON THEATRE
A Unicorn Production
PHILIP PULLMAN'S GRIMM TALES
Adapted for the stage by Philip Wilson
Directed by Kirsty Housley
Tuesday 13 November 2018 - Sunday 6 January 2019
PRESS PERFORMANCE: TUESDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2018 AT 7PM
ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS...
Kirsty Housley (Complicite Associate, co-director The Encounter, director The Pacifist's Guide to the War on Cancer) directs a delicious selection of Philip Pullman's favourite fairy tales by The Brothers Grimm, in an acclaimed adaptation by Philip Wilson, re-told and re-worked for Christmas.
Enter a world of powerful witches, enchanted forest creatures, careless parents and fearless children as they embark on adventures full of magic, gore, friendship, and bravery.
But beware, because like the world, these gleefully dark and much-loved tales won't be quite what you expect...
Age guide: 8 - adult / Duration: Approx 2 hrs 10 mins
CLORE THEATRE
A Unicorn Production in association with Filskit Theatre
HUDDLE
By Filskit Theatre
Tuesday 13 November 2018 - Sunday 6 January 2019
PRESS PERFORMANCE: TUESDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2018 AT 1.30PM
ONE STEP AT A TIME.
During the long, cold winter, Mr Penguin carefully guards his egg. Now this new dad needs to look after his newly born chick on his own and he's not feeling confident. How will father and baby work it out together?
A gorgeous, engaging and highly visual new Unicorn commission by Filskit Theatre, the makers of Breaking the Ice (2015), whose signature style features playful and innovative projection and sound.
This is a heart-warming tale about a child and parent learning how to thrive in spite of the odds.
Age guide: 2 - 5 / Duration: Approx 50 mins
FOYLE STUDIO
Originally commissioned by Discover Children's Story Centre
READY STEADY COLOUR'S CHRISTMAS FEAST
Directed by Toby Hulse
Designed by A Line Art
Saturday 15 December - Thursday 27 December 2018
DINNER, DESIGNED BY YOU.
A Christmas alternative from A Line Art with their unique brand of interactive arts and musical theatre for the whole family.
Take a seat at our make-believe Christmas restaurant, choose your 'food' and colour it in. And while you're decorating your plate with cranberry red paint, Salt and Pepper glitter and bread sauce glue, the restaurant's waiting-staff will entertain you with comedy, music and storytelling.
Age guide: 3+ (for all the family) / Duration: 55 mins
THE UNICORN IN SEATTLE
A Unicorn production
THE VELVETEEN RABBIT
By Margery Williams
Directed by Purni Morell
1 Nov to 30 Dec 2018 at Seattle Children's Theatre
Real isn't how you are made. It's a thing that happens to you.
Following a Broadway transfer, one of the Unicorn's most popular hits, The Velveteen Rabbit will play at the Seattle's Children's Theatre over Christmas 2018.
The Velveteen Rabbit is a heart-warming story about a very shy toy rabbit who longs for nothing more than to become real. He spends his days waiting patiently on the nursery floor, watching the Boy play with other toys and dreaming of being picked up and loved. And then, one day, he is rediscovered and all his hopes start to come true...
The production was one of the venue's most acclaimed hits in recent years, playing several sold-out runs.
Directed and adapted by Purni Morell and featuring Christian Roe as the Rabbit.
WESTON THEATRE
A Unicorn Production
ICARUS
By Katrin Lange
Translated by Purni Morell
Directed by Cressida Brown
Saturday 26 January - Sunday 10 March 2019
PRESS PERFORMANCE: TUESDAY 5 FEBRUARY 2019 AT 7PM
WHERE THE WATER ENDS AND THE SKY BEGINS, THAT'S WHERE I'LL FLY.
A new take on the classic myth from Germany's Kathrin Lange in a translation by Purni Morell and directed by Cressida Brown (Artistic Director, Offstage Theatre).
Here, where pleasant cottages stand colourful in the friendly village and a gentle breeze wafts through the air, children play in the square laughing and shouting - but Icarus, oldest son of the builder Daedalus, does not play with them. He sits looking out over the sea and thinks about his father.
The country that the Mother and the Brothers and Sisters live in has fallen off the edge of the world - while across the sea King Minos builds his kingdom. What can one boy do against injustice? Will he save his father? Will he save himself?
Age guide: 8 - 12 / Duration: Approx 1 hr 15 mins
CLORE THEATRE
A Unicorn Production in association with Reckless Sleepers
IT'S HOT, IT'S NOT
By Reckless Sleepers
Saturday 2 February - Sunday 10 March 2019
PRESS PERFORMANCE: TUESDAY 12 FEBRUARY 2019 AT 1.30PM
WEATHER THE WHETHER.
A new work for the Unicorn by doyens of European performance Reckless Sleepers, whose work sits somewhere between visual art, dance and theatre.
This surreal, funny and carefully crafted physical performance explores the weather in all its forms and takes delight in discovering the world anew and how we experience it differently, wherever we are.
Why is it that sometimes I'm hot but you're cold? Why are there puddles and sometimes not? How can it be sunny and rainy all at once and also not at all? And if it's summer here, why is it winter there?
Age guide: 2 - 5 / Duration: Approx 50 mins
CLORE THEATRE
A Unicorn / Theater Artemis (the Netherlands) Production
THE SHOW IN WHICH HOPEFULLY NOTHING HAPPENS
Created and directed by Jetse Batelaan
Originally devised with cast members Martin Hofstra and René Geerlings
Thursday 21 March - Sunday 28 April 2019
PRESS PERFORMANCE: THURSDAY 28 MARCH AT 1.45PM
HOW BORING CAN THEATRE BE?
Originally created in the Netherlands, this carefully crafted, absurdist masterpiece of hope, humour and failure by Jetse Batalaan is remounted with the Unicorn featuring a UK cast.
Welcome to the most boring show in history: an actor who never gets to perform and a security guard who just hopes nothing will occur.
Age guide: 6 - 10 / Duration: Approx 1 hr
WESTON THEATRE
A Unicorn Production in association with The Polar Bears
THE POLAR BEARS GO, GO, GO!
By Eilidh MacAskill & Fiona Manson
Tuesday 26 March - Sunday 28 April 2019
PRESS PERFORMANCE: TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2019, 2PM
ALL ABOARD...
Join the two very loveable but slightly hapless Polar Bears on their holiday adventures. Will they ever reach their destination? Or are they just going around in circles?
Have your ticket ready, find your seat, fasten your seatbelt and anchors aweigh - take off and go, go, go!
The much-loved Polar Bears return following two hit shows at the Unicorn. The pair creates smart, sharply observed comic performances for younger audiences.
Age guide: 2 - 5 / Duration: Approx 50 mins
WESTON THEATRE
A Unicorn / English National Opera Production
DIDO
Directed by Purni Morell
Conducted by Valentina Peleggi
Saturday 11 May - Sunday 2 June 2019
PRESS PERFORMANCE: TUESDAY 14 MAY 2019, 7PM
PURCELL'S DIDO AND AENEAS, RE-IMAGINED FOR THE MODERN AGE.
English National Opera and the Unicorn join forces for the very first time to create a new production of Purcell's powerful and emotional masterpiece, Dido and Aeneas, for teenagers and adults.
Belinda is the only child of Dido. A teenager like any other, in any big city. We watch through her eyes as her mother - heroine, feminist icon, modern parent - slowly starts to fall apart, with tragic consequences.
Directed by the Unicorn's former Artistic Director Purni Morell and conducted by ENO's Valentina Peleggi, this contemporary production will be an incredible first experience for some, and for others a chance to see a familiar and much-loved opera in a new light.
Age guide: 11 - adult / Duration: Approx 1 hr 15 mins
Sung in English
WESTON THEATRE
A Unicorn Production
AESOP'S FABLES
Directed by Justin Audibert
Sunday 16 June - Sunday 4th August 2019
PRESS PERFORMANCE: THURSDAY 27 JUNE 2019, 1.30PM (4-7 YRS) & 7PM (8-12 YRS)
ALL THE MOST INTERESTING THINGS ARE AMBIGUOUS.
Incoming Unicorn Artistic Director Justin Audibert directs a series of eight newly commissioned plays based on the classic tales. They will play in repertory to two age groups. Commissioned writers include Chris Thorpe; Somalia Seaton; Kaite O'Reilly; Naomi Iizuka; Chris Goode; Kim Noble; E V Crowe.
As far as it is known, Aesop was a slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BC. But although little is known of the man himself, over 725 of his stories remain - passed down from generation to generation.
The Unicorn will be presenting two productions of these enduring stories; one for ages 4-7 and one for ages 8-12.
Accompanied by events and workshops, this is a celebration of young and old, ancient and new - a tribute to how fresh, bold and vibrant the classics remain today.
Age guide: 4 - 7 and 8 - 12 / Duration: Approx 1 hr
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