Rapunzel: New Dance Version to Tour

Published: 6 October 2012
Reporter: Peter Lathan

Rapunzel Credit: Bill Cooper
Rapunzel Credit: Ravi Deepres
Rapunzel Credit: Ravi Deepres

A new dance version of the classic fairytale Rapunzel, choreographed by balletLORENT’s Liv Lorent and written by Poet Laurate Carol Ann Duffy, co-produced with Northern Stage and a Sadler’s Wells and New Writing North commission in association with Durham Book Festival, is to tour from 18th October through to April 2013.

This new production is inspired by the dark themes central to this fairy story: a woman’s longing for a child, promises and deceit, sexual jealousy, loyalty, loneliness, vengeance and redemption…

Liv Lorent says, “Most of us remember Rapunzel’s hair and the tower, but we’re a bit hazy on the rest of the story. It has been told again and again and reinterpreted for children of today through versions like Disney’s Tangled, but we’re telling an older, slightly darker version, more akin to its Grimm tale origins. We’ve included a part of the story which is usually neglected and will be telling it through the eyes of different characters.”

This large scale production is being performed by eight of balletLORENT’s dancers who are joined by a cast of 10 children and young people from the age of 2-17yrs. balletLORENT is working with 14 young people who attend the Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) scheme at Newcastle’s Dance City, and a group of toddlers and their parents.

As well as Lorent and Duffy, the creative team consists of, composer Murray Gold (Doctor Who, Shameless, Torchwood), costume designer Michele Clapton (HBO’s Game of Thrones TV dramas Sense and Sensibility), set designer Phil Eddols (2004 Olympic Games opening ceremony and the 2009 Metropolitan Opera Gala in New York), lighting designer Malcolm Rippeth (Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Brief Encounter for Kneehigh, Kin and Spur of the Moment at the Royal Court and Tutti Frutti for the National Theatre of Scotland) and narrator Lesley Sharp (who is an actor for an eclectic range of TV and film productions).

Rapunzel marks Carol Ann Duffy’s first collaboration for dance, following previous experience of writing for the stage.

“Fairy tales are both strange and familiar, frightening and reassuring, and provide a map of childhood which we can still use as adults to remember who we are,” she says. “Their re-telling and reinterpretation is part of the lifeblood of literature.”

The production premieres at the Durham Book Festival at the Gala Theatre, Durham, from 18th to 20th October, and will then go on to Hull Truck Theatre (23rd – 24th November), Northern Stage in Newcastle (21st – 23rd February, 2013), Sadler’s Wells (29th - 30th March 2013) and Oxford Playhouse (5th - 6th April 2013). More dates are to follow.

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