Playbox goes for global drama in Warwick

Published: 7 January 2017
Reporter: Steve Orme

Theatre-in-the-round: the Dream Factory will be converted for the spring and summer season

More than 200 young people will take part in a season of “extensive global drama” presented by Playbox Theatre in a reconfigured arena at its headquarters, the Dream Factory, Warwick.

Inspired by the thoughts of French writer Jules Verne, the 2017 spring and summer season is called Voyages Extraordinaires.

The Dream Factory auditorium will be converted into an arena for more than 200 people, with seating, lighting and sound re-imagined for the theatre-in-the-round season.

Playbox’s literary associate Toby Quash has written the first play in the season, The Story of the Jaguar and the Old, Old World. It opens on 23 March.

For Easter, Playbox will stage Lion Boy, adapted by Manuel Dos Santos from the novels of Zizou Corder. To prepare for the movement in the show, members of the cast will go to West Midlands Safari Park to study a lion’s behaviour and characteristics. The play opens on 13 April.

Life Raft, adapted by Fin Kennedy from Georg Kaiser’s The Raft of the Medusa, will play in repertoire with Lampedusa by Anders Lustgarten from 12 June.

A new version of Sophocles’ Electra and a new interactive adaptation of Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days will open in the summer.

The season has been curated by Stewart McGill who will also direct Lion Boy and Lampedusa. He said, “we believe our theatre must voice debate and reflect upon crucial issues relating to today’s world.

“To support our work, the actors will train with experts in Kathak movement, capoeira (martial art), circus, dance and other artistic world techniques to make this a unique season.”

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