Almeida Premieres Marianne for First Family ShowDate: 25 May 2007
The Almeida will present its first-ever family production this Christmas. Following the success in recent years of adaptations including His Dark Materials and Coram Boy at the National and Skellig at the Young Vic, the Almeida brings Catherine Storr’s classic children’s book Marianne Dreams to the stage, opening on 19 December 2007 (previews from 13 December) and continuing to 19 January 2008.
On her tenth birthday, Marianne runs a fever and to her horror she’s soon confined to bed. She picks up a pencil and starts to draw to fill her time. That night Marianne dreams. Transported into her own picture, she discovers she has the power to change her dreams. As she draws by day and dreams by night, she soon realises the consequences of her actions and finds that she’s not alone – a sick boy called Mark exists not only in her dreams but also in her waking reality.
Storr’s novel was first published in 1958 and has been reprinted many times. The stage play, commissioned by the Almeida and recommended for children aged seven and above, is adapted by Moira Buffini, whose Dying for It, a new version of Nikolai Erdman’s The Suicide, has just finished at the Almeida. Buffini’s other original plays include Dinner, Love Play and Silence.
Marianne Dreams is directed by Royal Ballet director and choreographer Will Tuckett, who makes his musical directing debut next month with the Royal Opera House revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods at the Linbury Studio (See News, 15 Mar 2007). It’s designed by Anthony Ward with lighting by Neil Austin.
Currently at the Almeida, artistic director Michael Attenborough’s UK premiere production of Theodore Ward’s ‘lost’ 1937 play Big White Fog, opened last week and continues until 30 June (See Review Round-up, 21 May 2007).
The 16th annual Almeida Opera season then runs from 5 to 22 July 2007 and is followed by Attenborough’s revival of Clifford Odets’ 1935 classic Awake and Sing!, which stars The West Wing’s Stockard Channing and was announced earlier this week (See News, 22 May 2007). Awake and Sing! is on from 6 September (previews from 31 August) to 20 October 2007. No production has yet been announced for the interim between it and Marianne Dreams.
- by Terri Paddock
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