The Wolves in the Walls @ The Lyric

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Lyric Hammersmith presents the newly formed National Theatre of Scotland’s first production The Wolves in the Walls, a co-production with Improbable, from 12 to 29 April.

National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone, Improbable’s Julian Crouch and composer Nick Powell collaborate with a cast of puppets and actors, musicians and scenery to create an intensely visual, raucous and scratchy, joyous and scary exposé of how anarchic wolves really are. Devised from Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s eponymous graphic children’s book, it is the first stage production of the National Theatre of Scotland.

This is the story of Lucy, who hears creeping, creaking, crumpling noises coming from behind the wallpaper and knows that there are wolves in the walls of her house. Her mother is busy making jam, her father is busy playing the tuba, her brother is busy playing computer games. They say the noises are mice, or rats or bats. But they are wrong and she is right and everyone knows when the wolves come out of the wall it’s all over . . .

Vicky Featherstone is a champion of new writing, and came to the NTS from Paines Plough where she developed and directed outstanding work including plays by Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill and Abi Morgan. Julian Crouch is an Artistic Director of Improbable, where he has co-created such work as 70 Hill Lane, Spirit and The Hanging Man. He also designed and co-directed Shockheaded Peter (a co-production with Lyric Hammersmith), and designed Jerry Springer the Opera.

Neil Gaiman and illustrator Dave McKean collaborated on The Wolves in the Walls, a children’s picture book in 2003, having first collaborated on the best selling modern comics series Sandman. Gaiman is also a novelist for adults and children, including Coraline, and has co-written the script for Robert Zemeckis’ new film Beowulf, starring Angelina Jolie, Antony Hopkins, Ray Winstone and John Malkovich. Gaiman’s website, www.neilgaiman.com, has over 500,000 visitors per month and is linked to more than 2,500 other websites.

The Wolves in the Wall is family theatre in the way Shockheaded Peter is family theatre. So it’s for anyone over 7 who’s not easily scared . . .

Improbable and the National Theatre of Scotland
The Wolves in the Walls
Based on the book by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
12 - 29 April 2006

Conceived and made for the stage by Vicky Featherstone, Julian Crouch and Nick Powell
Additional lyrics by Neil Gaiman
Co directed by Vicky Featherstone and Julian Crouch
Designed by Julian Crouch
Music by Nick Powell
Choreography by Steven Hoggett

 

March 6, 2006