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Sparkle and Dark Brings KILLING ROGER to SUSPENSE London Puppetry Festival, Now thru Nov 3

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Following a 5 star run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and selling out at Bristol Puppetry Festival, award-winning Sparkle and Dark invite you to their breathtaking new play Killing Roger at the SUSPENSE London Puppetry Festival 2013. Intense. Provocative. Brutal. Beautiful...

Since March this year, critically acclaimed puppetry Theatre Company Sparkle and Dark have been astonishing audiences throughout the country with their controversial and thought provoking new play Killing Roger. Sparkle and Dark are fast becoming known for their outstanding and innovative puppetry theatre and Killing Roger is no exception to this.

Killing Roger began it life in London this year, playing to sell out audiences at Little Angel Theatre's brand new FIRSTS Festival. After receiving funding from Wellcome Trust, the show was then met with five star reviews, standing ovations, tears and laughter at Underbelly during Edinburgh Fringe 2013. To kick off their national tour,
Sparkle and Dark are now returning to their home town to perform at SUSPENSE, London's premiere, international puppetry Festival.

Killing Roger is puppetry in a form many people will never have seen before - this is not children's theatre, nor is it non-verbal object manipulation and it is certainly not a dark and twisted fairy tale. This is a genuinely human, two hander character play set in the real word with the astonishingly life like and life sized puppet of Roger at its core.

The stage is set, the lights are low and the music is brooding and atmospheric. What then unfolds is the profoundly moving yet humorous story of the unlikely and fateful friendship between the young Billy and the old, terminally ill Roger. The question is; can Billy fulfil Roger's last request? Can the boy become a man and make a decision that will change both of their lives forever?

This brand new play by prize winning author L.W.Illsley has been described by critics, audience members and artistic peers alike as an important and thought provoking piece of theatre. The 'right to die' is a hot topic in both politics and the media at the moment and Killing Roger deals with this issue in a sensitive, questioning and non-didactic way.

Sparkle and Dark's journey from an unknown collective in 2009 to an award-winning emerging company becoming known for its outstanding puppetry design and performance ("a puppet masterclass... Sparkle and Dark's storytelling has class and power" The Independent) has been nothing short of a whirlwind. After two ACE funded national tours under their belt for both The Clock Master and The Girl With No Heart and now a Wellcome Trust funded tour in 2014 for Killing Roger, they show no signs of slowing down any time soon!

Shows: 1st -3rd November 2013
Times: 1st - 7pm, 2nd - 2pm & 7pm, 3rd - 3pm & 7pm
Venue: The Pleasance, North Road N7 9EF
Tickets: £8
Venue BO: 020 7609 1800
www.pleasance.co.uk/islington www.suspensefestival.com

Sparkle and Dark's Travelling Players: www.sparkleanddark.com.

Theater Fans' Choice Awards
2026 Theater Fans' Choice Awards - Live Stats
Best Original Score - Top 3
1. The Rescues , The Rescues - The Lost Boys
34.8% of votes
2. Jim Barne, Kit Buchan - Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
26.6% of votes
3. Cinco Paul - Schmigadoon!
26.4% of votes

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