Lyric artistic associate Simon Stephens, who wrote Punk Rock, which premiered there last year, has co-written A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky with David Eldridge and Robert Holman. It will begin performances May 7, prior to an official opening May 12, for a run through May 29. It will be directed by Lyric artistic director Sean Holmes, with design by Jon Bausor and sound design by Nick Manning. According to press materials, the play is set on a farm in the North East of England, where a family gathers. Behind them the sea boils orange. The universe is coming to an end. Three of England's leading playwrights come together in a unique collaboration to create an epic play about hope, love, fear and the very end of time. If it were all to end where would you go? Who would you see? What would you do?
Prior to A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky, a month of comedy productions will include John and Martin Marquez bringing their Belgrade Theatre, Coventry production of a comic epic The Dark Side of Buffoon to the Lyric April 7-17, directed by Timothy Sheader, and Spymonkey and Royal & Derngate Northampton's production of Spymonkey's Moby Dick April 20-May 1, directed by Jos Houben and Rob Thirtle.
A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky will be followed by a season of Improbable and Keith Johnstone's Lifegame, running July 6-17. The show, which is described in press materials as "part chart show, part improv show," was first presented in 1998, and has since been seen around the U.K., including a previous season at the Lyric, as well as in seasons at London's National Theatre and the South Bank Centre's Purcell Room. Internationally, it has been presented at New York's Jane Street Theatre, San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse and Australia's Energex Brisbane Festival.
According to Improbable's website, the show is a theatrical biography, taking the bare bones of a life story by interviewing a guest onstage and then transforming that information, there and then, into a magical piece of theatre. Each Lifegame has a different "subject" each night, because there is a different guest each night.
To book tickets, contact the box office on 0871 22117 22, or visit www.lyric.co.uk
