New Vic Artistic Director Theresa Heskins and Upswing Artistic Director Vicki Amedume follow up their collaboration on Olivier award-winning The Worst Witch and the New Vic’s critically-acclaimed production of Dracula in 2015 with Angela Carter’s gripping gothic horror, The Company of Wolves.
New Vic Artistic Director Theresa Heskins said: “For my entire career I’ve wanted to bring Carter’s dazzling story The Company of Wolves to the stage. It’s taken me a long time to realise how to do it. The live Foley sound effects combined with dynamic circus content, which we pioneered in Dracula to sinister and sensual effect, will allow us to bring to life this impossible-to-stage tale of werewolves and danger. It feels as though this is just the right time for Carter’s ahead-of-her-own-time brand of rule breaking, provocation and power politics to hit the stage. It’s inspiring to once again be collaborating with circus choreographer Vicki Amedume. We’ve been developing a fusion of theatre and circus which is now the foundation of a major partnership programme between the New Vic and Upswing, aiming to push the boundaries of this combined artform. I’m thinking of this production as circus / theatre / spoken word fusion.”
The New Vic’s eagerly anticipated adaptation of Angela Carter’s radio play and novella, The Company of Wolves, will be co-directed by Heskins and longtime collaborator Vicki Amedume of Upswing (who collaborated on 2020’s Olivier award-winning The Worst Witch). On stage from Friday 20 September to Saturday 12 October, this iconic gothic horror version of the Red Riding Hood tale will be brought to life through a combination of thrilling drama and contemporary circus action and is the next production to be staged as part of the New Vic and Upswing’s circus-theatre programme of work. Theatrical innovation, including the use of Foley and an evocative soundscape alongside spectacular aerial acrobatics with the use of Chinese Pole, will fuse together to create a suspenseful drama of epic proportions.