Award-winning choreographer Matthew Bourne is releasing a new work entitled The Midnight Bell in September.
The show is set in 1930s London and will explore the lives of ordinary people who visit bars and pubs in Soho and Fitzrovia. It takes place inside the The Midnight Bell, a tavern that serves as a meeting place for a lonely-hearts club.
It will feature Liam Mower, who previously played Billy in the original London production of Billy Elliot, and Paris Fitzpatrick, who starred in the lead role of Romeo in Bourne’s 2019 production of Romeo and Juliet.
The music will be composed by Terry Davies, and the set and costumes will be designed by Lez Brotherston.
Bourne was inspired by the English novelist Patrick Hamilton, who wrote Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky and Hangover Square.
Bourne explained that Hamilton “wrote about the lives of everyday people, full of pathos, comedy and thwarted romance.
“More than any other author of the time, Hamilton’s characters speak with the authentic voice of the era and it’s the raw passion and secret lives that lie beneath the conventional exterior that appeals to me so much.”
The Midnight Bell will open in Cheltenham on 9 September before touring the UK for two months where it will visit cities such as York, Inverness and Brighton. The tour includes a season at Sadler’s Wells from 4 to 9 October.
The full tour schedule can be found on the New Adventures website.
Words by Ellen Leslie.
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Image: © Johan Persson