Rumpelstiltskin

Shoreditch Church
Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JN
United Kingdom
at door £5 general, £3 Students/Concessions

BCMG - Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

A grotesque fable for our times.

A miller boasts to the king that his daughter can spin straw into gold.Three times the king demands she does so, promising marriage. If she fails her life is forfeit. Three times she despairs until Rumpelstiltskin appears, spinning straw into gold in exchange for a gift. The third time the girl promises her first-born child to Rumpelstiltskin, should she be queen. A year later, the new queen bears a child and Rumpelstiltskin arrives for his fee. He will only relent if within three days the queen can guess his name…

A gripping parable of greed and the use and abuse of power, this timeless Brothers Grimm tale is told through dance, action and music alone. Composer David Sawer’s fascination with puzzles and riddles delivers a score of glittering brilliance and rhythmic energy to express the story’s themes of transformation, ritual and revelation. Known for their verve and wit, the Olivier and Tony Award-winning Richard Jones (director) and Stewart Laing (designer) create a tableau of moving pictures to bring Rumpelstiltskin to thrilling new life.

Rumpelstiltskin wowed audiences and critics alike when given its world premiere in Birmingham last November. We were overjoyed by the wave of wonderful reviews and fantastic feedback that we received following those performances and the subsequent tour to Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Tramway, Glasgow. We are delighted that we have the opportunity to share this fantastic production with you all over again.

“…Richard Jones’s wildly and vividly dramatic production…Sawer’s score is entrancing…I was gripped throughout its 70 minute duration”
Rupert Christiansen, The Daily Telegraph ****

Rumpelstiltskin re-unites composer, director and designer of Skin Deep (Opera North) and From Morning to Midnight (ENO). Composer David Sawer has written music for the BBC Proms, for plays by Edward Bond and Nick Dear, and songs for David Harrower’s adaptation of Brecht’s The Good Soul of Szechuan. Richard Jones and Stewart Laing have directed and designed opera and theatre in the West End (ENO, Royal Opera House, National Theatre), for the RSC, in New York (Titanic / Broadway – 5 Tony Awards, All’s Well that Ends Well / New York Shakespeare Festival) and throughout Europe, winning a host of awards.

David Sawer : Rumpelstiltskin