My Dad’s A Birdman at The Young Vic

MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: The Young Vic

25 November 2010 – 1 January 2011

David Almond’s enchanting tale takes flight this Christmas at the Young Vic with music composed by world famous electronic duo Pet Shop Boys. Oliver Mears, artistic director of Northern Ireland Opera, directs this uplifting show for young audiences, with musical direction from Phil Bateman ((Billy Elliot; West End) and design by Olivier Award winner Giles Cadle (His Dark Materials; NT).

David Almond, the Carnegie medal and Whitbread award-winning author of Skellig was recently honoured with the world’s most prestigious prize in children’s literature - the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Medal.

Pet Shop Boys Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, are the most successful pop duo in UK music history. They will write original music to accompany Almond’s delightful story about a Great Human Bird Competition. This will be their first collaboration with the Young Vic and their first theatre project for young audiences.

Everyone is in a twitter – the Great Human Bird Competition is coming to town! Lizzie and Jackie have been building their nest and are preparing for take off. But Auntie Doreen disapproves and is out to bring some order back to No.2 Lark Rise! Will the dynamic father and daughter duo get a chance to fly, or will sums, dumplings and headmasters get in their way?

The cast is David Annen, Paul Bentall, Sam Cox, Charlie Sanderson and Tracey Wilkinson.

Pet Shop Boys have sold over 50 million records, released 10 studio albums and had four number one singles; West End Girls, It’s a Sin, Always on My Mind and Heart. They have won a plethora of awards including the Outstanding Contribution to Music at last year’s BRIT awards. Throughout their extraordinary career they have collaborated with many of the world’s greatest artists including Dusty Springfield, Liza Minnelli, David Bowie, Yoko Ono, Derek Jarman, Zaha Hadid, Sam Taylor-Wood and
Es Devlin. For stage, they wrote the 2001 West End musical Closer to Heaven with playwright Jonathan Harvey and are currently scoring a new ballet for Sadler’s Wells - The Most Incredible Thing – which opens next spring.

David Almond ‘s books are bestsellers all over the world. His first novel Skellig won the Whitbread Children’s Award and the Carnegie Medal. Trevor Nunn directed a much-loved stage adaptation of Skellig at the Young Vic in 2003; it is now also an opera and a film starring Tim Roth. His latest book My Name is Mina is the prequel to Skellig and was published this September to great acclaim.

Almond’s second book Kit’s Wilderness won the Smarties Award Silver Medal, was Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal, and shortlisted for the Guardian Award. The Fire-Eaters won the Whitbread, the Smarties Gold Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. His latest novel Clay was shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book award and the Carnegie Medal.

Oliver Mears is artistic director of Northern Ireland Opera where he will direct Tosca in 2011. He is also artistic director of Second Movement Opera where his credits include Trouble in Tahiti, A Hand of Bridge, Fade and Tears of a Knife.
Phil Bateman was recently musical director for The Human Comedy (Young Vic/ Watford Palace Theatre). Other credits include the three-time Olivier Award-winning Hello Dolly (Regent’s Park), Olivier Award-winning Billy Elliot The Musical (West End) and Gigi (Regent’s Park).

Designer Giles Cadle won the 2006 Oliver Award for His Dark Materials (NT). At the Young Vic his work includes Punch and Judy, King Lear and Six Characters in Search of an Author. Other work includes No Man’s Land (West End), Mother Clap’s Molly House (NT) and Duke Bluebeards Castle (ENO).

My Dad’s a Birdman is directed by Oliver Mears, with musical direction by Phil Bateman, design by Giles Cadle and light by Giuseppe Di Lorio.

25 November 2010 – 1 January 2011

Tickets

Adults £10
Children £8

Tickets and information www.youngvic.org 0207 922 2922