The Unicorn Theatre has announced casting for Lulu Raczka’s reimagining of Gulliver’s Travels and Wild directed by Eva Sampson.
Gulliver’s Travels runs 15th March to 3rd May. Jaz Woodcock-Stewart directs Leah Brotherhead (Netflix’s Bridgerton/ITV’s Zomboat), Mae Munuo (the Unicorn’s Canterville Ghost/ Complicite’s I’ll Take You to Mrs Cole), Sam Swann (Skellig/ITV’s Mr Selfridge) and Jacoba Williams (Globe’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream/ Vaults Festival When The Sea Swallows Us Whole) in Lulu Raczka’s radical re-imagining of Jonathan Swift’s surreal masterpiece, Gulliver’s Travels for all the family this Easter.
Lemuel Gulliver sails away to a world of strange islands and even stranger creatures – from the tiny inhabitants of Lilliput, to the giants of Brobdingnag, and the mysterious Houyhnhnms – in what turns into an epic adventure of survival, unexpected friendship and in the end, self-discovery.
Gulliver’s fantastical imaginings are brought vividly to life using video camera, intricate table-top sets and projection alongside live performance in this playful, funny and highly inventive show that uses Swift’s biting satire to explore reality and escapism, home and family, and the power of stories to transform our view of the world.
Eva Sampson directs Wild, a highly visual, non-verbal piece of theatre for children aged two to six years, running 17th March to 3rd May.
The versatile cast includes Laura Caldow, Farrell Cox, Peter Hobday and Mei Mac.
Wild’s home is the forest. Bears teach her how to eat, birds help her to speak, and foxes show her how to play. She knows nothing but nature from birth. She is irrepressibly wild.
But one day, some new animals arrive and they look oddly like her and they want to take Wild away. But what if she was happy where she was?
Adapted from the glorious picture book by UK based, Hawaiian artist Emily Hughes, Wild is brought to life by the inventive and much admired company How It Ended, co-run by Eva Sampson and playwright Teresa Burns, who make work with and for young people and whose credits include The Little Gardener (UK Tour) and You Obviously Know What I’m Talking About (Underbelly).
This funny and moving story is full of wide-eyed wonder, celebrating the free spirit in all of us. Vividly told using atmospheric sound, skilful physicality and imaginative puppetry, Wild is about accepting people for who they are rather than trying to make them into something they are not.
