An event called Roald Dahl's City of the Unexpected is to be staged in Cardiff September 17-18, co-presented by Wales Millennium Centre and National Theatre Wales.

Directed by Nigel Jamieson, the event is recruiting a volunteer cast of 6,000, including 2,000 choristers, 1,000 dancers, 50 Morris Minor drivers, 40 bald men, 13 magicians, four brass bands, three excavator drivers, a Spitfire pilot, firemen, circus artists, aerialists, rock climbers, grandparents, children and a performing mouse.

Cardiff will celebrate the centenary of one of its most well-known sons, Roald Dahl, with this weekend-long event, showcasing both his distinctive voice and the jewels of the city's buildings, parks and its people. According to press materials, the city will be transformed into a place where the laws of physics and civic predictability will give way to the laws of magic, mischief and the unexpected.

In a press statement Jamieson commented, "Roald Dahl's imagination has touched the most extraordinary number of people around the world. For generations, he has been part of our bed times, our childhoods, and the development of our imaginations. It is thus fitting that the weekend celebrating his birth in Cardiff will involve one of the most ambitious mobilisations of a city’s inhabitants ever attempted, together transforming it into a place that will unlock the child in everyone and create a city of wonder and surprise."

Dahl is currently represented by stage versions of Matilda (West End and Broadway) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (West End and Broadway-bound).

For further details, visit cityoftheunexpected.wales.