Unicorn Theatre Announces New Season- Including WINTER'S TALE, I, MALVOLIO and TEAR THIEF

Building on the success of her first season, Artistic Director Purni Morell continues the Unicorn's commitment to pushing the boundaries in theatre for audiences aged 2 to 21.

Morell will be working with some of Europe's most inventive and dynamic theatre makers. Artists include Chris Goode, David Greig, Ignace Cornelissen, Tim Crouch, E V Crowe, Hannah Ringham and Ansuman Biswas, and spoken word artist Polarbear. The Unicorn also welcomes the return of Oily Cart in a co-production with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

This season also sees a number of extra events including readings from some well known names including Juliet Stevenson reading from The Tear Thief and David Walliams reading from his much anticipated new book, released in Autumn.

In a season of revivals, reworkings and world premieres, the Unicorn is quickly establishing itself as a venue for exciting and enquiring work for younger audiences, addressing issues with wit, vitality and imagination.

Highlights include award-winning playwright David Greig's compelling account of one of the 20th century's unsung heroes in Dr Korczak's Example; a refreshing and contemporary introduction to Shakespeare with A Winter's Tale by Belgian playwright Ignace Cornelissen and Tim Crouch's acclaimed one-man show I, Malvolio; Douglas Rintoul will direct a new adaptation of 1001 Nights; Liar Liar, a new play by E V Crowe. At Christmas, a new adaptation will be staged of Mark Twain's classic children's story The Prince and The Pauper for all the family and for the very young Oily Cart and RSC's In A Pickle.

A Chris Goode & Company and Unicorn production
MONKEY BARS
Directed by Chris Goode
Tue 25 – Sun 30 September PRESS NIGHT: TUESDAY 25 SEPTEMBER AT 7.30pm

Award-winning writer Chris Goode asked thirty 8-10 year olds to talk about their lives, their thoughts, their world.

In Monkey Bars their words are spoken by adults. Not adults playing children, but adults playing adults, in adult situations. Monkey Bars is a revelatory verbatim show for adults about children that is funny, touching and endlessly surprising.
For Adults

A Studio ORKA production
WOESTERDAM
by Studio Orka
Fri 21 – Sun 23 September -Coming soon to a secret location to be confirmed shortly

Come and hear the story of the Woesterdam gang, who fought a world of painful silence and violent rage, armed only with clenched buttocks, the love meter and the sadness sieve, and how everything came right because of the longest kiss in the world.

Studio Orka are a Belgian collective of designers and actors who make unusual and touching site-specific shows in out of the way places.
Age guide: 8-12

A Unicorn production
A WINTER'S TALE
by Ignace Cornelissen
based on The Winter's Tale by Shakespeare
Directed by Purni Morell
Wed 19 September – Fri 16 November PRESS NIGHT: TUES 2 OCTOBER 7pm

A group of actors are performing The Winter's Tale at the Unicorn. But it's not going well.

Based on Shakespeare's late comedy, this hilarious new play turns the world of The Winter's Tale on its head. It's a play within a play, in which four performers present Shakespeare's story of Kings and Queens and bears in the forest – a world of petty jealousies and playground rites, in which it's always the servants who draw the short straw.
Age guide: 7-10

A Unicorn Production
DR KORCZAK'S EXAMPLE
by David Greig
Directed by Ria Parry
Sun 23 September – Tues 13 November PRESS NIGHT: THUR 27 SEPTEMBER 7pm

Dr Korczak's Example is set in the final days of an orphanage in the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw, where food is scarce, tempers rise, and everyone wants to survive.

Award-winning playwright David Greig tells this powerful tale of Korczak's refusal to abandon the orphanage through the eyes of two of the orphans, and focuses on Korczak's insistence that everyone should live by the key values of tolerance and respect even in the face of injustice.
Age guide:11-13

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