The Bloody Chamber stage adaptation to tour this Spring

A stage adaption of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber will head out on a UK tour this Spring.

Proteus Theatre will tour their adaptation of Angela Carter’s collection of short stories The Bloody Chamber (and Other Stories) from 23 March at Harlow Playhouse.

Leading the cast will be Rosie Rowlands (Red Palace, Shotgun Carousel; The Little Mermaid, Metta Theatre), Megan Brooks (Squeezy Green’s Compendium of Games, The Wardrobe Theatre; Igloo, Bristol Old Vic), Ashley Christmas (Crimes on the Coast, tour; The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Hull Truck Theatre), Anesta Mathurin (Aida, ENO; The Way Out, BBC4) and Lorraine Moynehan (Devisor: Nights at the Circus, Kneehigh; Trapeze, English National Ballet).

An erotic, heady and feminist re-telling of Angela Carter’s dark fantasy fairy tales, the production is performed using aerial circus, visual physical theatre, gothic design and a haunting soundscape. The Bloody Chamber is a visually decadent and surprisingly funny reimagining of some of the most famous folk and fairy tales in Western culture. These are the stories our mothers told us. And all the ones they didn’t dare…

Following a successful run in Worthing last June, this adaptation translates Angela Carter’s fever dream style to the stage. Step into wonderland with this surreal and poetic fantasy world, empowering women through discussions of sexuality and fearlessness.

Proteus Theatre are working with leading figures in the circus industry to choreograph the piece including Mimbre’s Silvia Fratelli, Charlotte Mooney from Ockham’s Razor and Tamzen Moulding, the Artistic Director of Inverted Theatre.

The Bloody Chamber also features an original soundtrack with musical direction, arrangements and sound design by Max Reinhardt (BBC Radio 3 Late Junction) and original composition by Paul Wild who worked with Proteus on Macbeth.

Director Mary Swan said: “Like so many female writers Angela Carter has long been overlooked in the canon of great British literature, but happily this is finally beginning to change. Using circus as the chief physical language of the piece enables us to create the surreal, Escher type worlds of the castle in The Bloody Chamber, the landscapes of Wolf-Alice and the nightmarish home of the vampire in The Lady of the House of Love.

“Her work is sadly more relevant now than ever; the advice contained in the tales to young women is all too reminiscent of the list published by the Metropolitan Police in 2020 following the murder of Sarah Everard. The Reclaim the Night movement started in the late 1970s when Carter was writing The Bloody Chamber, prompted by outrage at the murder of women on Britain’s streets, and that we are still marching in 2022 is a depressing validation of all the warnings contained within these tales.”

The Bloody Chamber tour dates

23rd March – Harlow Playhouse
http://harlowplayhouse.co.uk/

4th April – Drama Studio, University of Sheffield
https://performancevenues.group.shef.ac.uk/

6th April – Harrogate Theatre
https://www.harrogatetheatre.co.uk/

8th April – The Dukes, Lancaster
https://dukeslancaster.org/

9th April – Waterside Arts Centre, Sale
https://watersidearts.org/

20th – 21st April – The Haymarket, Basingstoke
https://www.anvilarts.org.uk/

4th May – Bedales School, Petersfield
https://www.bedales.org.uk/

6th – 7th May – Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead
https://norden.farm/

13th – 14th May – Norwich Playhouse
https://norwichtheatre.org/