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Howl’s Moving Castle Debuts at Southwark for Xmas

The stage adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones’ award-winning novel Howl’s Moving Castle will premiere at Southwark Playhouse’s this Christmas in a production created by artists Davy and Kristin McGuire, writer Mike Sizemore and Guillemots singer and songwriter Fyfe Dangerfield.

Fusing live action with pioneering projection, Howl’s Moving Castle seeks to recreate the magic of Wynne Jones’ 1986 novel in Southwark Playhouse’s Vault performance space. The production will run from 2 December 2011 (previews from 28 November) to 7 January 2012.

Sophie is an 18 year old girl who toils in the hat shop opened years ago by her late father. One day she finds she has unexpectedly angered the evil Witch of the Waste and finds herself trapped within a spell that turns the young Sophie into an old woman.

Howl’s Moving Castle was adapted into an animated film in 2004, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, which was nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar.

The Southwark Playhouse production is directed and designed by Davy and Kristin McGuire whose latest productions include The Icebook and the music video for "I Must Be a Lover" by UK band Guillemots.

Writer Mike Sizemore has co-curated several large-scale social media film industry events involving the likes of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams. His sci-fi television show concept Slingers is currently in pre-production.

Composer Fyfe Dangerfield is best known as a founding member of the Brit Award-nominated Guillemots, an indie rock band whose first album Through the Windowpane was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2006. Their second album RED peaked at number nine in the UK album charts. Howl’s Moving Castle marks Dangerfield's first theatre composition.


Diana Wynne Jones, who died in 2011, was a London-born writer whose best known works include Dogsbody, Power of Three, A Sudden Wild Magic, Dark Lord of Derkholm, Hexwood, The Ogre Downstairs and The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. A recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2007, she also received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Bristol in 2006.

Howl’s Moving Castle is presented by Southwark Playhouse in association with Katherine Jewkes for Arts Collective Ltd.

The family show may be the theatre's last Christmas production in their current location. The Southwark venue recently announced they will have to find new premises from December 2012 as Network Rail has no plans to reincorporate the venue into the redeveloped London Bridge station, work on which will take over five years to complete.

- by Andrew Girvan

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	Howl's Moving Castle - 12th Dec 2011 reviews

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