Unfolding Andersen

23 June 2005 :: Posted by Victoria Main

24 July – 19 August
Performance times: Tuesday - Sunday 11.00am and 2.30pm

A free show for 4-8 year olds and their families. inspired by the British Library’s Hans Christian Andersen exhibition and designed by theatre-rites.

As loose pages fly from a pile of old-fashioned leather-bound books, three performers recreate key moments from Hans Christian Andersen’s best-loved stories. The acclaimed theatre company theatre-rites weaves its customary magic to create whole worlds out of paper - conjuring up tin soldiers and ugly ducklings and discovering how stories let our imagination take flight.

Duration: c40 minutes.

Advance booking essential: Tel: + 44 (0)20 7412 7222 Email: boxoffice@bl.uk.

For more information, contact Victoria Main at the British Library Press Office: +44 (0)20 7412 7112 or victoria.main@bl.uk.

Notes for editors

Theatre-rites

“If you were to make a list of the great British theatre companies of the past ten years, theatre-rites would be up there too”. The Guardian.

The award-winning theatre-rites pioneers new approaches in theatre for children and adults, creating a memorable shared experience. theatre-rites celebrates its tenth anniversary this year and since its founding, has been stirring the imaginative lives of audiences with its extraordinary fusion of performance, puppetry, installation art, video and sound. As well as creating productions in theatres, theatre-rites is renowned for its performances in spaces as diverse as a hospital ward, a cellar, a corner shop and an old mill.

For more information, contact theatre-rites: +44 (0)20 8946 2236, info@theatre-rites.co.uk or www.theatre-rites.co.uk.

Hans Christian Andersen 20 May – 2 October 2005

This free exhibition, designed by theatre-rites, aims to reveal some of the underlying themes of Andersen’s fiction. Using clues provided by many of his best known characters, it explores the dark side as well as the innocence of his vision. Suitable for people of all ages, interactive exhibits complement the more traditional historical material to mix word and play, reality and magic. Within a soundscape inspired by Andersen’s stories, puppets, pulleys, projections, and paper-cuts bring his characters to life. Visitors can create their own fairy tales, go under water and find the Snow Queen herself.

Material chosen from the collections of the British Library, as well as items on loan from Denmark and beyond, focuses the exhibition on Andersen’s life and reception in Britain. Original manuscripts and early editions are on show, together with ballet costumes from the Royal Opera House. Wonderful illustrations across the decades reflect the changing times. Further information is available on the Library’s website at www.bl.uk/hca.

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive research collection. The British Library’s collections offer an unequalled treasure trove for the creative researcher: they include over 150 million items from every era of written human history; from Chinese oracle bones dating from 300 BC, right up to today’s newspapers. Further information is available on the Library’s website.