balletLORENT Comes to Darlington Hippodrome

Multi-award winning dance theatre company balletLORENT will head to Darlington Hippodrome later this month as part of a 2020 national tour with a brand new fairytale The Lost Happy Endings, an original story by former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, retold as dance theatre for family.

Directed and choreographed by balletLORENT's Artistic Director Liv Lorent (MBE) with narration by Joanna Lumley, this new fairytale follows the award winning and critically acclaimed Rapunzel (2012-2014), Snow White (2015-2016), and Rumpelstiltskin (2017-2018). The Lost Happy Endings truly is dance theatre for the 21st century family.

"Both as a Poet and as a parent I've always loved revisiting and retelling our traditional myths and fairytales. As we have developed the story, we found we weren't only dealing with the Lost Happy Endings, but also the alternative middles." Carol Ann Duffy.

Liv Lorent has reunited with some of her other world-renowned collaborators who created Rapunzel, Snow White and Rumpelstiltskin: Composer Murray Gold; Dramaturg Ben Crompton; and Lighting Designers Malcolm Rippeth and Michael Morgan. New collaborators Set Designer Neil Murray and Fashion and costume designer Nasir Mazhar have joined us for this production.

The Lost Happy Endings is a story about a magical girl called Jub who lives deep in the forest and has six fingers on each hand. Her job is to guard the happy endings to stories and fairytales. But one day an otherworldly Witch steals them, and at bedtime the stories are destroyed... Goldilocks changed the locks on the cottage of the three bears... Cinderella's foot is now too big for the glass slipper... Little Red Riding Hood is gobbled up by the wolf... Pinocchio's nose never stops growing, in fact, his nose grew so long that he arrived everywhere a whole day before he set off!

As the Witch disappears with the stolen Happy Endings it is up to Jub to save the night, encountering many beloved fairytale characters and woodland creatures in her quest... Packed with spirit, adventure and glorious surprises, this fantasy family show will delight generations both old and young.

"The Lost Happy Endings is our most topical work to date with light, darkness and humour. We see children's fury when the happy endings of their stories are stolen from them, and we see our main character Jub, make it her job to rewrite fairytales to give the characters an ending that they deserve." Liv Lorent MBE

The professional company will be joined on stage by a community cast of children aged 6-11yrs, some of which have performed with balletLORENT in the fairytale trilogy, and some of which are local children who have been selected from Firthmoor Primary School.

"The children in our work continue to be the heart of the story. It is their distress and anger, and also their hope and creativity as they charge forward with their imagination that feeds our grown-up hearts with emotion and renews our energy for all the good in the world that is worth fighting for." Liv Lorent MBE

The Lost Happy Endings runs at Darlington Hippodrome on Saturday 22 at 7.30pm and Sunday 23 February at 2.30pm

For more information or to book call 01325 405405 or visit www.darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk