Leading Newcastle based dance theatre
company balletLORENT returns to Northern Stage with the prem-iere of the
classic fairytale Rumpelstiltskin (24-28 October 2017).
Following the award winning and
critically acclaimed Rapunzel (2012-2015), and Snow White (2015-2016),
balletLORENT present the final part of their trilogy of Brothers Grimm
fairytales. Choreographed and di-rected by balletLORENT’s Artistic Director Liv
Lorent MBE and retold by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, Rum-pelstiltskin is
dance theatre for the 21st century audience.
The professional ensemble will be
joined by a cast of North East children aged 4-9 years old, found through
creative workshops in six local primary schools and older people (aged 68+)
from local community groups.
Liv Lorent explains, “The children and
older people who feature in our production of Rumpelstiltskin add an
authenticity to the fairytale world we are creating. The wide age span - from
4-79 - of these guest performers comes closer to the reality of the communities
we all inhabit. All of the community cast from the east and west ends of
Newcastle upon Tyne have shared their creativity with us with great generosity,
and have enhanced our work with their individuality. Without them, our range of
ex-perience is limited as we are all dance professionals and our bodies are
trained in a certain way. But with our guest cast we can tell stories of
humanity with a deeper truth, and they offer the impressions of what our bodies
once were, and what they may become.”
“I am loving it! It’s different, it’s
something new! When you get to our age, you need to have some-thing different
to do.” Sylvie (participant)
“At the start [of the workshops] I
felt embarrassed but then I put my heart into it. It was great, thank you!”
Year 3 pupil, Knop Law Primary School
Liv Lorent has been reunited with the
team of world renowned collaborators who created Rapunzel and Snow White: Dame
Carol Ann Duffy (Whitbread, T.S. Eliot and Pinter Prize winner); five time
BAFTA nomi-nated composer Murray Gold (Doctor Who); narrator Ben Crompton (Game
of Thrones); BAFTA and Emmy Award winning costume designer Michele Clapton
(Game of Thrones and The Crown); set designer Phil Eddolls (joint TMA award
winner for Improbable’s The Hanging Man); and OBIE and Outer Critics Cir-cle
award-winning lighting designer Malcolm Rippeth.
“It’s a joy and a thrill to be
collaborating once again with Liv Lorent and her creative team and to be
bringing to life another seminal fairytale to family audiences who love dance
or who have yet to discover it.” Carol Ann Duffy, Scenario Writer (Poet
Laureate)
With clever characterisation,
Rumpelstiltskin will celebrate the underdog, the refugee, in a tale of a man’s desperate
longing for love and belonging, set in a rural world of a shepherd and his
daughter. Rumpelstiltskin is performed by eight of balletLORENT’s core dancers
who have been central to the choreographic development of the fairytales and
who have a diverse age range of 22-53 years. Liv Lorent: “Rumpelstiltskin is
the story of the outsider, shunned for being different, and the secret power
and knowledge he possesses. He is the original super mutant, a fairytale X-Man.
Through the
eyes of balletLORENT’s first male
protagonist, we are looking to explore themes of love, obsession, childhood,
grief and reconciliation – a show that is full of beautiful imagery and music
and is made as much for adults as it is for children.”
Co-produced by Northern Stage and commissioned
by Sadler’s Wells.
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