Phillip Pullman’s Dark Materials has been adapted by Nicholas Wright, from three novels into two full-length plays and is being directed by Rachel Kavanaugh at the REP. The productions are from Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company in association with West Yorkshire Playhouse.
Image by Catherine Ashmore
Philip Pullman’s magical story unfolds in a world where young girl Lyra lives in an Oxford very like our own, but strangely different with other people’s souls brought to life as animal companions, known as daemons.
The trilogy has been on my reading ‘to-do’ list for ages now and this has promted me to do so, but I do wish I had read them before finding out about tonight’s ‘Spotlight Special with Philip Pullman’. Catherine Ashmore’s beautiful production images just got uploaded to the REP website, and are definately worth a look.
Just to add that the plays are spectacular -I saw both parts in a 6-hour marathon on Saturday and they left me gobsmacked. The trilogy is so full of the mad, magical and fantastic that it was a total puzzle how they’d bring all that to the stage. The minimal approach is brilliant allowing you to use your imagination to fill in the gaps and allowing the focus to rest on the characters – including the daemons. The puppets are beautiful and they are manipulated with subtlety and grace.
PP himself seemed really down to earth at the Spotlight event last night – warm, friendly and really connected to his audience. There were a lot of school children eager to ask questions and he answered them all with consideration, humour and wit.
I wish he was my uncle!
I have to admit to only getting halfway through the second book of the trilogy (it’s because of my short attention span and not a rebuke of the writer)but I saw the play in two parts last weekend and it was truly a memorable experience.
Great theatre that will capture a child and an adult’s attention. The Rep may have detractors (I am one) but by seeing this you will be supporting the Rep and if that means they can carry on doing beautiful work like this then it’s worth the effort.