After premiering five years ago and touring widely with great critical acclaim, Luca Silvestrini’s award-winning dance adaptation of The Little Prince returns by popular demand next Spring, touring to rural community spaces as well as arts venues.
Loved by children and adults around the world for generations, the classic tale by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was given a fresh and witty adaptation using Luca Silvestrini’s distinctive blend of dance, humour, spoken word and music. The show was nominated for Best Modern Choreography at the National Dance Awards 2021 and won the Fantastic for Families Best Family Event Award 2020. Audiences will be invited to join the Little Prince as he journeys through a weird and wonderful universe, meeting fascinating characters along the way whilst learning about the value of friendship and love.
Stranded in the desert where he’s crashed his plane, a pilot meets an inquisitive boy who tells him a remarkable story of how he left his own tiny asteroid and journeyed through the universe. On this journey, the Little Prince comes face to face with the baffling world of grown-ups, from a king who reigns over nothing to a businessman obsessively counting stars, from a mysterious snake to a truly wise and friendly fox. With an original score by Frank Moon, design by Yann Seabra and lighting by Jackie Shemesh, Protein’s charming show invites us to look at the world through one’s heart and to reconnect with our inner child.
Following on from the main stage tour Luca Silvestrini’s Protein is delighted to be touring an adapted version of the show to smaller spaces, taking the show to where the audience is in rural areas to venues including village halls, community centres and schools over a two-week period. The Little Prince ends its run at Woolwich Works in South East London where Protein is Resident Artistic Company, returning with the specially adapted, more intimate version of the production. In addition to three public performances at the venue there will be three dedicated schools matinees preceded by five days’ of schools workshops, enabling hundreds of primary school children from the Royal Borough of Greenwich to experience the show’s magic.
Simon Palmer and Faith Prendergast reprise their roles as the Pilot and the Little Prince respectively. Karl Fagerlund Brekke rejoins the cast in his new role as Fox, Lamplighter and Geographer. Chiara Vinci joins the cast in her Protein debut performing the roles of Garden of Roses, Business Man, Rose, Snake and King.
Luca Silvestrini said, “We are so pleased that our popular adaptation of this timeless story is back on tour, continuing to captivate and enchant audiences as it has since 2018. This tour returns with both our beloved original production and our specially adapted version for smaller and rural venues. Given the challenges and uncertainties of these current times, this family show about the power of love and friendship is especially poignant. Catch it in a theatre or village hall near you – make sure to bring everyone along.”
Formed in 1997 and one of the most distinctive voices in British dance theatre, Luca Silvestrini’s Protein uses a blend of original choreography, humour, spoken word and music to entertain and provoke audiences. The company’s idiosyncratic dance theatre is provoked by the everyday and its repertoire includes the award-winning LOL (lots of love), which has toured extensively since its 2011 debut, and Border Tales, which peels back stereotypes about multicultural Britain. Protein was awarded the Critic’s Circle National Dance Award for Best Independent Dance Company 2011 and was nominated again in 2016. In December 2022, Protein’s There and Here project has been nominated for a Stage Award for Community Project of the Year.
