‘Let’s have all the skeletons out of the closet, today, of all days!’
It’s 23 April, Shakespeare’s birthday.
In Brixton, Nora and Dora Chance – twin chorus girls born and bred south of the river – are celebrating their 75th birthday. Over the river in Chelsea, their father and greatest actor of his generation Melchior Hazard turns 100 on the same day. As does his twin brother Peregrine. If, in fact, he’s still alive. And if, in truth, Melchior is their real father after all…
A big, bawdy tangle of theatrical joy and heartbreak, Wise Children is a celebration of show business, family, forgiveness and hope. Expect show girls and Shakespeare, sex and scandal, music, mischief and mistaken identity.
Emma Rice (Romantics Anonymous, Tristan & Yseult, The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk and Brief Encounter) brings her unique, exuberantly impish vision to Angela Carter’s great last novel, Wise Children, launching her new theatre company of the same name and its London residency at The Old Vic.
Young Peregrine
Young Melchior
Musician
Showgirl Nora
Young Nora
Musician
Melchior
Showgirl Dora
Young Dora
Wheelchair/Lady Atalanta/Blue Eyed Boy
Nora
Grandma Chance
Peregrine
Dora
Writer
Director
Set and Costume Designer
Lighting
Sound and Video Designer
Composer
Choreography
Animation
Animation
Puppetry Designer
Puppetry Director
Fights
Fights