WildWorks World Premiere at Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2015

An immersive journey takes its audience deep into a world of shape-shifting humans and animals created specially for the enveloping dark woods of Norfolk's Felbrigg Hall.

The major theatrical highlight of this year's Norfolk & Norwich Festival is a new commission from acclaimed outdoor theatre makers WildWorks, co-produced by Norfolk & Norwich Festival running from Tuesday 5 - Saturday 23 May (except Sundays).

Wolf's Child is an immersive journey deep into the dark dense woodland surrounding Norfolk's Felbrigg Hall. It takes its audience on a journey into a world of shape-shifting animals and humans. An original landscape theatre commission from the masters of the genre, this promises to be an unmissable theatrical experience.

Created specially for the evocative woods around the National Trust property, the story is partly inspired by the Ancient Greek myth of Callisto, who became a beast and was killed by her own hunter son, and also the astonishing true story of Norfolk born Shaun Ellis, who spent two years as a fully integrated member of an Idaho wolf pack shunning all human contact. This extraordinary grown-up fairytale of love and betrayal opens in daylight against the magnificent backdrop of Felbrigg Hall. Then, as dusk approaches, the show follows an otherworldly journey through the trees to places of magical transformation; where crows talk and wolves sing, and where one disobedient serving maid discovers her inner beast.

Shaun Ellis is a special consultant to WildWorks on the project.

Wolf's Child features original live music, a cast of 13 professional actors and musicians and up to 50 locally recruited participants.

Bill Mitchell, WildWorks Artistic Director expanded 'Wolf's Child is a thrilling journey from safety and security into the untamed wild. We trek deep into the woods with a woman running from 'civilisation', confronting untamed beasts in the wilderness, and finally our own beast within'.

William Galinsky, Norfolk & Norwich Festival Artistic Director said 'Wolf's Child is our major commission this year. This brand new piece of landscape theatre is being created specially for us by one of the world's most exciting site-specific theatre companies. They have created iconic productions across the world and we're proud to be bringing them to Norfolk.'

Press night for Wolf's Child is Tuesday 12 May. Please contact Steve Forster as above for travel arrangements.

Norfolk & Norwich Festival enjoys an ever-growing national and international reputation for innovative and inspirational events. It is one of the UK's big four arts festivals and one of the oldest, being able to trace its roots back to 1772.

WildWorks create site-specific theatre that responds to landscapes and the stories within them; their most recent piece at The Lost Gardens of Heligan was part of the national 14-18 NOW programme and their critically-acclaimed The Passion with Michael Sheen drew an audience of over 25,000 to the streets of Port Talbot. From their base in Cornwall they have taken work us all around the world, hosting workshops in Palestine, leaping off harbour walls in Newcastle or awakening castles in Belgium.

The 2015 Norfolk & Norwich Festival runs from 8 - 24 May. The full line up will be revealed on 25 February.

'one of the outstanding theatrical events not only of this year, but of the decade' Susannah Clapp, The Observer on WildWorks' The Passion

Full info and tickets for all Norfolk & Norwich Festival events at www.nnfestival.org.uk

Box office 01603 766400

Listings info: WOLF'S CHILD World Premiere
Tuesday 5 - Saturday 23 May 7.45pm (not Sundays) £20 (£15 previews Tuesday 5 - Thursday 7 May)
There are a limited number of tickets priced £7 for under 25's.
Norfolk & Norwich Festival at Felbrigg Hall, Felbrigg Norfolk NR11 8PR
WildWorks' immersive woodland journey deep into a world of shape-shifting animals and humans, created amongst the dark woods of Felbrigg Hall by the international outdoor theatre specialists.
Norfolk & Norwich Festival at Felbrigg Hall, Felbrigg Norfolk NR11 8PR

Wolf's Child is co-produced by Norfolk & Norwich Festival and WildWorks in partnership with the National Trust Supported by Norwich Theatre Royal and North Norfolk District Council, sponsored by Jarrold and Mills & Reeve.
Research and development made possible by Legacy Trust UK.

Norfolk & Norwich Festival is the flagship arts festival for the East of England with a reputation for innovative and inspirational programming and commissioning. It is one of the big four UK international arts festivals, standing alongside Edinburgh International Festival, Manchester International Festival and Brighton Festival in terms of quality, reach, innovation and reputation. We collaborate with local, national and international partners to produce work for a huge and diverse range of audiences, participants and communities. The organisation has been an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation since April 2012 and is one of 10 Bridge Organisations with a mandate to develop arts and cultural opportunities for children and young people in the East of England. Norfolk & Norwich Festival is funded and supported by Arts Council England, Norwich City Council and the generous support of other funders, sponsors and donors. nnfestival.org.uk

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