THE ROAD THAT WASN'T THERE Announced At Circa Theatre

After rave reviews and awards around the world, Trick of the Light are bringing their celebrated dark fairytale back home. Combining shadowplay, puppetry, and live music, The Road That Wasn't There returns to Circa Theatre from 22 July to 1 August - a captivating cross-over work for adults and older children in the vein of Neil Gaiman and Margaret Mahy.

In New Zealand there are some 56,000 kilometres of paper roads - streets and towns that exist only on surveyors' maps. Or do they? A young woman strays from the beaten track and finds herself in a paper town. It seems a land of possibility, but she soon discovers that actions taken in the fictional world can have frighteningly real consequences...

The story is rooted in New Zealand folklore; from lost moa roaming the foothills, to faeries drinking moonshine out of the back of Mitre 10. First staged at the Edinburgh Fringe 2012, the play returned home to sweep the Wellington Theatre Awards (Outstanding New Playwright, Outstanding New NZ Play, Most Promising Director, and Production of the Year), and since then has toured around the world, including a season at the prestigious Edinburgh International Children's Festival and accolades for Best Children's Event at both Fringe World in Perth, and Adelaide Fringe.

The company was due to be performing their show The Bookbinder in China this month en route to seasons in the UK, but, like many touring artists, watched a year's worth of scheduled work disappear as the pandemic spread. Whilst last year's NZ tour of The Road That Wasn't There missed out a stop in the capital, with actor Paul Waggott stuck in London, even once lockdown lifted, it seemed a home season of The Road That Wasn't There was off the cards. However, with Paul now back in the country, the company are delighted to fill in this gap on the map, and return to Circa where an earlier version of the play last enchanted audiences in 2014.

Trick of the Light Theatre is an award-winning New Zealand theatre company founded by Hannah Smith and Ralph McCubbin Howell. Their previous shows include The Bookbinder, Tröll, and The Devil's Half-Acre.