A “gripping” adaptation of a gothic horror radio play and novella and a rare in-the-round staging of one of the great British comedies of the 21st century can be seen at Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre in 2024.
New Vic artistic director Theresa Heskins and Vicki Amedume, boss of contemporary circus company Upswing, will collaborate on Angela Carter’s The Company of Wolves. That will be preceded by a production of Richard Bean’s comedy One Man, Two Guvnors.
Heskins said, “for my entire career I’ve wanted to bring Carter’s dazzling story The Company of Wolves to the stage. It’s taken me a long time to realise how to do it. The live foley sound effects combined with dynamic circus content, which we pioneered in Dracula (in 2015) to sinister and sensual effect, will allow us to bring to life this impossible-to-stage tale of werewolves and danger.
“It feels as though this is just the right time for Carter’s ahead-of-her-own-time brand of rule breaking, provocation and power politics to hit the stage.
“It’s inspiring to once again be collaborating with circus choreographer Vicki Amedume. We’ve been developing a fusion of theatre and circus which is now the foundation of a major partnership programme between the New Vic and Upswing, aiming to push the boundaries of this combined artform. I’m thinking of this production as a fusion of circus, theatre and spoken word.”
The Company of Wolves will run from Friday 20 September until Saturday 12 October.
Conrad Nelson, artistic director of Staffordshire’s Claybody Theatre, will direct One Man, Two Guvnors, a “cocktail of mistaken identity, mayhem, music, fast-paced physical comedy and silliness” at the New Vic from Friday 12 April until Saturday 11 May.
Former New Vic assistant director Eleanor Taylor will return to direct Hugh Janes’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s “spine-tingling Victorian ghost story” The Haunting from Friday 24 May until Saturday 15 June.
The new shows join the New Vic’s previously announced productions for 2024, A Leap in the Dark by Ron Hutchinson, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the UK’s first radio play, from Friday 9 February until Saturday 2 March; Ladies Down Under, Amanda Whittington’s comedy sequel to her ever-popular Ladies’ Day, from Friday 8 until Saturday 30 March; and family circus fairy tale The Princess and the Pea, a co-production with Upswing and the Unicorn Theatre, from Wednesday 19 until Saturday 29 June.