Box Of Tricks' Acclaimed World War II Drama NARVIK Comes To London

Following their hugely successful touring productions of Plastic Figurines and Chip Shop Chips, Manchester theatre company Box of Tricks bring their critically-acclaimed new play with songs, Narvik, by award-winning playwright Lizzie Nunnery, to London's New Diorama Theatre.

Inspired by tales from naval veterans, and stories of her grandfather's time in the Navy, Nunnery's latest play brings to life a powerful story of love, guilt, heroism and betrayal.

Set in World War II, Narvik tells the story of a Liverpudlian man and a Norwegian woman pulled together and torn apart by war as the events of one summer cause ripples across an ocean of time. Lizzie Nunnery explores her dual creative strands - writer and singer/songwriter - to conjure a play where music and words meet, creating a patchwork of memory and dream, truth and fantasy.

The cast will feature Joe Shipman (Ten Tiny Toes and The Way Home, Liverpool Everyman), Lucas Smith (Doctor Faustus, Royal Exchange; A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Hallé) and Nina Yndis (Norwegian feature film Glassdukkene and Peaky Blinders).

The production will be directed by Box of Tricks' Joint Artistic Director and co-founder Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder, designed by award-winning designer Katie Scott (shortlisted for this year's Old Vic 12) and feature original music and songs by Vidar Norheim, Martin Heslop and Lizzie Nunnery.

Writer Lizzie Nunnery is an award-winning playwright and celebrated singer-songwriter. Lizzie's first theatre play Intemperance (Liverpool Everyman, Sept 2007) was awarded 5 stars by The Guardian and shortlisted for the Meyer-Whitworth Award. In 2017 she will have theatre work produced by Liverpool Everyman, Royal Exchange Theatre, Box of Tricks and NT Connections. She has also written extensively for BBC radio. The Hanleys, a series for Woman's Hour, will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2016.

Lizzie Nunnery said: "Following the success of the premier at The Liverpool Playhouse in 2015, I can't wait for Narvik to tour to a wider audience. It's been great to build on the experience of the debut run, developing and shaping the script and music further- putting together an even more exciting version of the show to take out nationwide. I'm so proud of the production team and cast for taking the kernel of an idea and turning it in to an epic tale of love and war. The story's fictionalised from true stories of WWII sailors, including some told to me by my granddad, but from the start Hannah and I wanted to do much more than present history onstage. Through the music and physicality, the storytelling enters strange dreamlike places where memory, imagination and truth collide, creating an intense and immersive show. It'll be exciting to see how different audiences respond to it from Keswick to London."

Box of Tricks is a Manchester-based theatre company that champions the next generation of playwrights, producing top quality new plays on local and national stages. This year they will be celebrating their 10th anniversary.

For more information visit www.boxoftrickstheatre.co.uk.

Photo credit: Alex Mead, Decoy Media