Lyric life

• FRANTIC ASSEMBLY’S ADAPTATION OF METAMORPHOSIS IN COLLABORATION WITH BAFTA NOMINATED POET, PLAYWRIGHT AND BROADCASTER LEMN SISSAY OBE CONCLUDES ITS NATIONAL TOUR AT THE LYRIC HAMMERSMITH THEATRE, FROM 01 FEBRUARY – SATURDAY 02 MARCH 2024. TICKETS ON SALE NOW LYRIC.CO.UK

• DIRECTED BY SCOTT GRAHAM, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF FRANTIC ASSEMBLY, THIS BOLD RETELLING OF KAFKA’S RENOWNED METAMORPHOSIS IS A VISCERAL PRODUCTION INTERROGATING CRUELTY AND KINDNESS.

• TEACHERS AND STUDENTS CAN ACCESS FREE EDUCATION RESOURCES AND WORKSHOPS AND A BESPOKE SCHOOL’S RESPONSE PROJECT TO FURTHER ENHANCE YOUNG PEOPLE’S LEARNING AND PARTICIPATION WITH THEATRE.

Scott Graham, Director and Artistic Director of Frantic Assembly, said:
“I am absolutely thrilled to be bringing our collaboration with Lemn on Metamorphosis to the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. The Lyric is hugely important to both of us. It has been a theatre that has nurtured and presented Frantic’s work and development and is the perfect place to complete the tour of Metamorphosis. Collaborating with Lemn has been a privilege and a joy and I cannot wait to see our work together meet the brilliant Lyric audience in that beautiful Lyric auditorium.”

Rachel O’Riordan, Artistic Director & CEO of the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, said:

“We couldn’t be more excited to see our co-production with Frantic Assembly, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Curve and Mast Mayflower Studios arrive at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre.

The show has moved audiences across the country and now London will finally experience this thrilling adaptation by one of the country’s most significant writers and thinkers, Lemn Sissay, in our beautiful auditorium. Programming and producing re-lensed plays are a core strand of our work at the Lyric, shifting the dial on who ‘owns’ classics. This brave adaptation, coupled with Frantic Assembly’s renowned work for physical storytelling, will be an unmissable night at the theatre.”

Lemn Sissay (OBE), Adaptor, said: “I’m delighted to return to the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in February with Frantic Assembly. The Lyric holds a very special place in my heart and after being one of the headliners in For the Culture – Celebrations of Blackness Festival, I could not be happier the UK tour of Metamorphosis concludes here.”

Metamorphosis
A Frantic Assembly, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Curve, MAST Mayflower Studios and Lyric Hammersmith Theatre co-production
Written by Franz Kafka
Adapted by Lemn Sissay OBE
Directed by Scott Graham
Thursday 01 February – Saturday 02 March 2024
Press Night: Tuesday 06 February 2024

One morning Gregor Samsa awakes to find himself changed. To those around him he is dangerous, untouchable vermin. Worse than that, he is a burden.

A word said, an action out of place, the opening of old wounds, none of which can be undone. Until now Gregor has woken every morning, quietly left to take the same train, and worked to pay off the family debt. But that world explodes on this morning of brutal metamorphosis.

In their first new commission since 2019, Frantic Assembly and Lemn Sissay OBE collaborate on a thrilling new adaptation of Metamorphosis. Combining the fluidity and lyricism of Lemn Sissay’s adaptation and Frantic’s uncompromising physicality, this is an unmissable retelling of Franz Kafka’s shocking tale of cruelty and kindness; a visceral and vital depiction of humans struggling within a system that crushes them under its heel.

Directed by Frantic’s Artistic Director Scott Graham (Othello, Lovesong, Beautiful Burnout) the new production premiered at Theatre Royal Plymouth in September 2023 and has been touring the UK extensively, including Leicester’s Curve, MAST Mayflower Studios and upcoming dates at Bristol Old Vic and Belgrade Theatre Coventry, culminating in a four-week run at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre from 01 February – 02 March 2024.

Scott Graham (Director) is Artistic Director of Frantic Assembly, co-founding the company in 1994. He has received nominations for his work on Beautiful Burnout (Drama Desk Award, New York), Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Olivier, Tony and Fred Astaire Awards). With Steven Hoggett he won the TMA Award (now UK Theatre Awards) for Best Direction for Othello. He has provided movement direction for shows at the Royal National Theatre, National Theatre Wales and National Theatre of Scotland. He has developed and written extensively about the Frantic Method. With Steven Hoggett, he has written The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre (Routledge) and Frantic Assembly is the subject of a book in the Routledge Performance Practitioners series. Scott is passionate about creating opportunities for people who might see theatre as a challenge or alienating, and believes that these new voices and fresh perspectives are vital to the health of the arts sector.

Lemn Sissay OBE is a poet, broadcaster and author. Lemn won the RIMA award from the Commission for Racial Equality in 2005 for his one-man radio drama Something Dark. He has published extensive plays and radio dramas, including Lemn Sissay’s Origin Stories for the BBC, The Report at the Royal Court, a one-off show about the effects of a psychologist’s report as he was observed as a child and an adaptation of Benjamin Zephaniah’s Refugee Boy for West Yorkshire Playhouse.   Lemn has made multiple award-winning documentaries, including Lemn Sissay: Memory of Me for BBC One’s Imagine strand, and Superkids: Breaking Away from Care for Channel 4. From 2007, he became the artist-in-residence at the Southbank Centre. Beyond this, his work has featured at the Royal Academy and the British Film Institute. In 2012, he was the official poet for the London Olympic Games. He was chancellor of the University of Manchester from 2015 – 2022 and his poems are permanent installations across the city and in London at locations including Royal Festival Hall and Olympic Park.  In 2015 he featured on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Lemn became a trustee of the Foundling Museum in 2017, and in 2019 he was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize. In that same year, he published his memoir My Name is Why to great critical acclaim. In 2022, Lemn took part in television programmes such as BBC’s Live Lessons, curated poems for BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Season and Team GB’s 10^th Anniversary, and wrote and presented his own podcast series with the British Library called All About Sound. His new collection of poetry Let the Light Pour In was recently pubished by Canongate.

YOUNG LYRIC
In response to Metamorphosis, Young Lyric in collaboration with Frantic Assembly will deliver the schools’ response project Meta;morphed. This project provides the opportunity for two state London secondary schools and two SEND provisions/schools to take part in a series of four workshops run by Frantic Assembly practitioners. Using devising and physicality taken from the Frantic Method, theatre students will explore the production themes over a series of free workshops in schools. The response will culminate in a new schools performance at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre as part of a collaborative sharing of learning and ideas between theatres and educational institutions.

To find out more about educational enrichment opportunities stemming from Metamorphosis, please visit https://lyric.co.uk/schools-opportunities/metamorphosis/ .