The world premiere of Christopher William Hill’s Mister Holgado, the first family show by internationally acclaimed theatre company Complicite and the return of Something Very Far Away are among the shows announced by the Unicorn theatre’s Artistic Director Purni Morell to play at the venue later this year.
Directed by Matthew Lenton, whose adaptation of The Legend Of Captain Crow’s Teeth played at the Unicorn theatre last year, Mister Holgado kicks off the season from 24 March to 28 April with its deliciously dark and gruesomely funny story about a boy called Conrad who tells his parents that there is a tiger living in his wardrobe. While his parents dismiss the tiger as a figment of his imagination, when they let mysterious stranger Mister Holgado into their home, Conrad soon realises that the tiger is the least of his problems.
From 9 to 28 April, leading Italian theatre company Compagnia Rodisio will present Carnival, a vibrant project created through a series of workshops with school children in Southwark, which explores the power of the imagination, the madness of art and the endless possibilities of papier mache.
Following a successful run last year, Something Very Far Away returns to the Unicorn theatre from 21 May to 2 June. An exploration of sadness, mortality and wonder, the show tells the story of Kepler, an ordinary man who loves nothing more than his wife Tomasina and the cosmos. But, when his wife dies in a tragic circus accident, Kepler builds a spaceship in which to travel into space and look back at his happy memories on Earth.
Rounding off the season from 9 to 21 July, Complicite, the company behind the Barbican theatre’s hit production The Master And Margarita, will present its first ever family show Lionboy. Based on the stories by Zizou Corder, Lionboy tells the story of 11-year-old Charlie Ashanti who, with the help of a pride of performing lions and his extraordinary ability to talk to cats, sets off on a mission to save his parents from their evil kidnappers.
Other highlights in the Unicorn theatre’s spring/summer season include a selection of shows for children under five, Shoofly Theatre’s You’re Not My Friend Anymore, Teater Pero’s Aston’s Stones, stillmotion’s We Dance Wee Groove, and Tube, an Oily Cart production for children with profound and multiple learning disabilities.