Turning a much-loved story on its head with an intriguing modern twist, Tea Break Theatre will present their new re-working of Sleeping Beauty?. Â This live and interactive epic Zoom adventure will feature puppetry, original music and comedy.
Everyone knows the story: in a faraway time and a faraway place, a beautiful Princess is asleep in a castle. But this time, it’s 2020, and that faraway tale is happening here and now. Prince wants to save the Princess, so sets off on an adventure with his faithful dog, Puff. Can he save the Princess and defeat the evil villain, Dreaver, who is determined to turn your own dreams against you, all in time for Christmas?
Written and directed by Katharine Armitage (Big Finish’s Doctor Who Audio Adventures; Funny Women Writing Award finalist, 2020), Sleeping Beauty? is a fairy-tale for the 21st century. Families will be transported into a magical fairy-tale world, while exploring the feelings of loneliness, community, and isolation that have been heightened during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
This uplifting and enlightening tale will explore how being honest about our emotions and identity can help our mental wellbeing. Sleeping Beauty? hopes to help adults and children alike feel grounded and empowered, in what for many has felt like a chaotic and uncontrollable year.
Performers Felicity Sparks (Golem, BBC Four; A Christmas Carol, Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Alicia McKenzie (Blond Bombshells of 1943, Pitlochry Festival Theatre; The Wind in the Willows, New Vic Theatre), Chris Dobson (In The Night Garden Live, UK Tour; Bobbin, Little Angel Theatre) and Molly Small (A Wake In Progress, The Bunker, Pleasance and Underbelly; Beauty and the Beast, Sutton House) will engage with families directly in this live spectacle, while audiences remain on mute to enjoy this home adventure in their own individual way.
Katharine Armitage, writer and director of Sleeping Beauty?, comments, The power of theatre is that it is always there for us, whatever is happening, whatever the challenges, theatre finds a way to tell stories which both distract us and allow us to process the world we find ourselves in. By taking theatre online, but keeping it live and interactive, I hope to create something new and exciting: a form of theatre that actually would never have existed without the pandemic! I want totell a story which will transport you and your kids to an epic adventure with all the magic, hope and joy we need right now.
Ensuring theatre is accessible for all families this Christmas, Tea Break Theatre will be using a ‘pay what you can’ ticketing system, where low cost and free tickets are available for those who need them most.
Sleeping Beauty? Runs 17th – 30th December 2020. Tickets are on sale here
