Huck Press Release
Thursday 28 January 2010
Huck: Ambitious, Lyrical and Riveting Theatre by Award-winning Shapeshifter at Corn Exchange, Newbury
The adventures of Huckleberry Finn are brought crashing into life by award-winning theatre
company Shapeshifter and James Graham, winner of the Pearson Playwrighting Bursary in this ambitious, lyrical and riveting production.
Huck, the outcast urchin, and Jim, a runaway slave with a bounty on his head, are fleeing down the mighty Mississippi river on their makeshift raft in this adaptation of Mark Twain's confrontational and brilliantly funny novel. Fleeing his violent father and separated from his best friend, Huck wrestles with prejudices of faith, class, colour and age, while his own innately good heart struggles to win out. With the rhythmic, driving music of a young America and a fast-moving, comic script, Huck is at the frontier - the frontier of a new nation, and the frontier of morality - struggling with all the conundrums the adult world can throw up. As the river carries them away from home and towards new dangers and adventures, the relationship between the two fugitives deepens, the adventures grow wilder and the stories taller.
Shapeshifter is a two-time winner of the Peter Brook Empty Space Award, whose previous shows include Soldiers, Lark Rise to Candleford and King Arthur. Director John Terry is well-known for his ambitious and adventurous theatre work, which is usually script based but with a strong visual and physical tilt. Set designer Garance Marneur won the 2007 Linbury Biennial Prize for Stage Design.
For more information about Huck, visit www.hucktour.com.
Huck will be at the Corn Exchange on Thursday 18 & Friday19 February at 7pm. Tickets are £12 (£10 concs, £36 Family). Age Guide: 8+ (Issues of race and slavery). There will be a post-show discussion on Thursday.
Notes to Editors
Production credits
Written by James Graham, from the novel by Mark Twain
Directed by John Terry
Produced by Fresh Glory Productions in association with Shapeshifter and The Theatre Chipping Norton
Fresh Glory is a co-production company begun in 2007. Huck is their second national tour, the first being Frozen in 2008. Current projects in development include national tours of Lisa Evan’s comedy Up the Duff (co-production with York Theatre Royal) and Aditi Brennan Kapil's Love Person, a love story told in English, Sanskrit and Sign Language as well as a run at the Arts Theatre, London for the Lions part’s acclaimed play Lilies on the Land. For more information, please visit www.freshglory.com.
As two time winners of Peter Brook Empty Space Awards, Shapeshifter has developed a reputation for ambitious productions, in particular major fringe revivals of neglected classics and UK premiers of successful European and American drama. Their productions are defined by a strong physical presence, inventive use of visuals, powerful live and recorded music and have included King Arthur at the Arcola Theatre, Lark Rise to Candleford and Soldiers at the Finborough Theatre (Critic's Choice in Time Out and The Times). For more information, please visit www.shapeshifter.org.uk.
A two hundred seater theatre, arts centre, and independent cinema, The Chipping
Norton Theatre was founded 36 years ago. It has grown from local to regional and national prominence, winning the 2009/10 Stage Newspaper/TMA Award for Special Contribution to Regional Theatre. The Theatre is proud to support a wide range of creative artists and companies, bringing the best art and artists to a small rural community in The Cotswolds. For more information, please visit www.chippingnortontheatre.co.uk.
Set designer Garance Marneur won the 2007 Linbury Biennial Prize for Stage Design for emerging theatre designers. She won for designs created for Brecht’s Turandot at Hampstead Theatre. Originally from Chartres, France, Garance graduated this year from
Central St Martins School of Art & Design with a first class honours degree in Design for Performance. She has already designed work for number of productions and events including the acclaimed Orphans at Edinburgh Traverse and Soho Theatre, London; an exhibition at Bankside Gallery and a short film, The Shooting, which was screened as part of the East London Short Film Festival in 2006.
Director John Terry holds a track record for ambitious, energetic productions that subsume the audience into the world of the play. Extensive use of shared-space staging, live music and dynamic new perspectives on classic historical texts have defined his work. John was the winner of the 2006 Peter Wolff Theatre Trust/Peter Brook Empty Space Award for King Arthur, and the 2004/5 Peter Brook Empty Space/ Mark Marvin Award for outstanding new company for Shapeshifter.
For interviews, further information or images please contact Ruth Cadiot at ruthc@cornexchangnew.co.uk or 01635 582666 ext. 248 or Verity Shaw veritys@cornexchangenew.co.uk ext. 249