Following its acclaimed London run last summer, Nordic fairytale The Girl With The Iron Claws will return to the capital this Spring as part of a UK tour.
The iron clawed girl and her beloved white bear will open their four month tour at Islington’s Little Angel theatre from 23 to 25 April and return to London to complete the run at East London’s Arcola theatre from 8 to 13 July.
The Wrong Crowd’s debut family production shares its roots with Beauty And The Beast and tells the story of a wilful daughter of a king who feels more of a misfit than a princess. When she dares to defy her family and follow her longing, she finds herself deep in the forest where an encounter with a white bear sets her on a fateful path she could never have anticipated.
Created by Hannah Mulder and Rachael Canning, the coming-of-age tale received critical acclaim when it made its world premiere in 2011 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Guardian’s Lyn Gardner described the production as “a show with claws that proves Kneehigh hasn’t cornered the market in putting wonder back into fairytales” while Fest Mag raved about the show in its five star review, saying “It is rare to find a piece of theatre that genuinely engages both children and adults, and even rarer to find one that does so without patronising either audience.”
Speaking about the tour, which has been made possible by house, a new programme supported by Arts Council England designed to support venues to increase audiences and improve the range, quality and scale of theatre presented across South East and Eastern England, Mulder said: “When we made The Girl With The Iron Claws, it was in the spirit of ‘let’s give it a go’. It’s been a dream experience as a new company to find such a platform for our work and we’re really looking forward to rediscovering it with a brand new cast and sending it out into the world again with the brilliant support of house.”
You can read more about the show in our Q&A with Mulder and Canning here.