Telling the stones

Press, 7 March 1984, Page 14

Telling the stones

Christchurch Festival

The Harlequin Players Christchurch Festival production will bring a new concept of Theatre restaurant for the whole family to the Centre Gallery.

This will be converted into an open-plan Theatre, and families will be invited to bring their tea and enjoy the unfolding of “The Storytellers”, in a comfortable relaxed atmosphere. The play will open at 6 p.m. each evening from March 10 to 17. A performance will also be played on Sunday, March 11. 'A cast of 55 adults and children will bring the play Uflife. “The Storytellers” is a- fantasy, which includes within an original setting, adaptations of two plays by Hans Christian Anderson and two by the Brothers Grimm. The four wellknown favourites are: “The Real Princess”, “The Giant With the Three Golden

Hairs”, “The Elves and the Shoemaker” and “The Nightingale.” The play has been staged many times by the Children’s Theatre Company in London, where it enjoyed much success. The play is set in a Toyshop, where the principal characters, the Toyman and the Mirrorman, exact replicas of each other, open the play and combine to weave the story and give an introduction to each separate playette. The Toyman is played by Petrina Thin and the Mirrorman by Karen! Bell. The: cast includes Peter Sadler, as the King, Judith Armstrong, as his Queen, Graeme Randle, as the Giant,! Hilary Hughes as his Grandmother, Brian Coker, as The Shoemaker and Debbie Hawker, as his Wife, Ted Maginness, as the Emperor 'and Donald Bruce, as the Lord Chancellor.