A cult film in the 1980s, based on a short story from the 1970s, Angela Carter’s gothic horror tale The Company Of Wolves has just been adapted for the stage and shows at Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre next month. Here, the venue’s artistic director, Theresa Heskins, explains what audiences can expect from the show...
Angela Carter’s short story The Company Of Wolves - a gothic horror reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood- makes its stage debut at Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre next month.
The terrific tale of terror, transformation, danger and desire, first published in 1979, earned glowing reviews for its original take on the classic fairytale. The hope now is that the stage version achieves similar critical acclaim. The all-new production uses a variety of theatrical tricks to bring to life all the thrills and chills of the classic story, including inventive staging, hi-tech soundscapes and circus-style acrobatics.
The production is co-directed by New Vic Artistic Director Theresa Heskins and Vicki Amedume MBE, artistic director of contemporary circus company Upswing. The pair have previously collaborated on the New Vic’s critically acclaimed productions of Dracula (2015), the Olivier Award-winning The Worst Witch (2020), and more recently, The Princess And The Pea (June 2024).
So why The Company Of Wolves? It turns out that Theresa has been waiting for decades to helm an adaptation of the story.
“I’ve wanted to do it my whole career - 35 years,” she says. “It’s taken me a long time to realise how to do it, and I’m glad I’ve waited, because until I met Vicki, I don’t think I’d have done the right version.
“It feels as though this is just the right time for Carter’s ahead-of-her-own-time brand of rule breaking, provocation and power politics to hit the stage,” she adds, warming to the task.
“Another thing that’s so interesting about it is that even though it’s a well-known novel which is studied at GCSE level, it’s never been done on stage in the 45 years since it was written.”
The lack of stage version is especially surprising, given that adaptations of GCSE texts come with a guaranteed audience - but Theresa thinks there’s a very good reason why it’s never been attempted before.
“Because it’s impossible!” she laughs. “It’s about people turning from humans into werewolves and back again; why would you attempt to do that on stage? With CGI [computer-generated imagery] it’s become possible on screen, but on stage it’s really difficult.”
Fortunately she has a solution, which involves fusing elements of theatre and circus, a combination at the heart of the New Vic’s ongoing partnership with Upswing.
“Vicki’s a circus director who directs all sorts of aerial work all over the world, and a former circus performer herself. We’re working on something that has lots of trees on stage. The wolves can climb up into the trees and sit on the branches, so we’re managing the transition from human to werewolf that way.”
The trees are all made out of Chinese poles, vertical poles that circus performers can climb, slide down and position themselves on. The narrow poles are only around two to three inches in diameter but can rise up to 30 feet in height.
“People who are skilled at it can just run up the poles like they’re running along the floor - it’s extraordinary to see. It’s hard to describe as it’s so remarkable. We’ve got four amazing international circus performers coming to play the wolves, and they’ll be doing something that, to us mere mortals, looks totally superhuman.”
Theresa claims the production will be “as much circus as it is play” - with the caveat being that it’s very much contemporary circus, not clowns and elephants. But as much as it should be a wondrous spectacle, she expects it to be scary as well.
“The movement will be quite sinister but really exciting too, including the way we’re going to use the space - not just the stage but the whole area above the audience as well.
“I could never do that - I’ve got no head for heights! To see them up there, right at the top of a seven-metre-high pole, hanging upside down, or falling down it, it really does make you gasp. It’s really extraordinary.”
The dynamic circus content, accompanied by live sound effects and an evocative soundscape, should make for a dazzling production. But Theresa is also keen to acknowledge the importance of staying true to the drama and text of the original - not least for any students in the audience.
“I always try to stick quite tightly to the book when I’m adapting, as that’s the honourable thing to do. If young people who are studying it come along, they will find that it’s a really good refresher of the text or introduction to it.”
The text is actually a short story that’s part of a collection called The Bloody Chamber, all of which are adapted fairytales. The book was inspired by Angela Carter’s work as a translator of French texts, which included Le Petit Chaperon Rouge (Little Red Riding Hood) by Charles Perrault.
“Translating these fairy stories inspired her to write her own more modern and anarchic versions. She talks about putting old wine in new bottles and shaking it up until it explodes.”
Which sounds a little like what the new stage production is hoping to do. Theresa admits she’s never seen director Neil Jordan’s 1984 movie version, but a modest 1980 BBC radio play - adapted by the author - provided the starting point for a labour of love that has finally come to fruition, not to mention taken on a life of its own.
“I think it’s going to be spectacular, which I think people will find most appealing. It’s a really exciting horror story, so everything you might like about horror on television or on film you’ll find in it, but also there’s the very spectacular element of the circus. People won’t have seen anything like it.”
A cult film in the 1980s, based on a short story from the 1970s, Angela Carter’s gothic horror tale The Company Of Wolves has just been adapted for the stage and shows at Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre next month. Here, the venue’s artistic director, Theresa Heskins, explains what audiences can expect from the show...
Angela Carter’s short story The Company Of Wolves - a gothic horror reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood- makes its stage debut at Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre next month.
The terrific tale of terror, transformation, danger and desire, first published in 1979, earned glowing reviews for its original take on the classic fairytale. The hope now is that the stage version achieves similar critical acclaim. The all-new production uses a variety of theatrical tricks to bring to life all the thrills and chills of the classic story, including inventive staging, hi-tech soundscapes and circus-style acrobatics.
The production is co-directed by New Vic Artistic Director Theresa Heskins and Vicki Amedume MBE, artistic director of contemporary circus company Upswing. The pair have previously collaborated on the New Vic’s critically acclaimed productions of Dracula (2015), the Olivier Award-winning The Worst Witch (2020), and more recently, The Princess And The Pea (June 2024).
So why The Company Of Wolves? It turns out that Theresa has been waiting for decades to helm an adaptation of the story.
“I’ve wanted to do it my whole career - 35 years,” she says. “It’s taken me a long time to realise how to do it, and I’m glad I’ve waited, because until I met Vicki, I don’t think I’d have done the right version.
“It feels as though this is just the right time for Carter’s ahead-of-her-own-time brand of rule breaking, provocation and power politics to hit the stage,” she adds, warming to the task.
“Another thing that’s so interesting about it is that even though it’s a well-known novel which is studied at GCSE level, it’s never been done on stage in the 45 years since it was written.”
The lack of stage version is especially surprising, given that adaptations of GCSE texts come with a guaranteed audience - but Theresa thinks there’s a very good reason why it’s never been attempted before.
“Because it’s impossible!” she laughs. “It’s about people turning from humans into werewolves and back again; why would you attempt to do that on stage? With CGI [computer-generated imagery] it’s become possible on screen, but on stage it’s really difficult.”
Fortunately she has a solution, which involves fusing elements of theatre and circus, a combination at the heart of the New Vic’s ongoing partnership with Upswing.
“Vicki’s a circus director who directs all sorts of aerial work all over the world, and a former circus performer herself. We’re working on something that has lots of trees on stage. The wolves can climb up into the trees and sit on the branches, so we’re managing the transition from human to werewolf that way.”
The trees are all made out of Chinese poles, vertical poles that circus performers can climb, slide down and position themselves on. The narrow poles are only around two to three inches in diameter but can rise up to 30 feet in height.
“People who are skilled at it can just run up the poles like they’re running along the floor - it’s extraordinary to see. It’s hard to describe as it’s so remarkable. We’ve got four amazing international circus performers coming to play the wolves, and they’ll be doing something that, to us mere mortals, looks totally superhuman.”
Theresa claims the production will be “as much circus as it is play” - with the caveat being that it’s very much contemporary circus, not clowns and elephants. But as much as it should be a wondrous spectacle, she expects it to be scary as well.
“The movement will be quite sinister but really exciting too, including the way we’re going to use the space - not just the stage but the whole area above the audience as well.
“I could never do that - I’ve got no head for heights! To see them up there, right at the top of a seven-metre-high pole, hanging upside down, or falling down it, it really does make you gasp. It’s really extraordinary.”
The dynamic circus content, accompanied by live sound effects and an evocative soundscape, should make for a dazzling production. But Theresa is also keen to acknowledge the importance of staying true to the drama and text of the original - not least for any students in the audience.
“I always try to stick quite tightly to the book when I’m adapting, as that’s the honourable thing to do. If young people who are studying it come along, they will find that it’s a really good refresher of the text or introduction to it.”
The text is actually a short story that’s part of a collection called The Bloody Chamber, all of which are adapted fairytales. The book was inspired by Angela Carter’s work as a translator of French texts, which included Le Petit Chaperon Rouge (Little Red Riding Hood) by Charles Perrault.
“Translating these fairy stories inspired her to write her own more modern and anarchic versions. She talks about putting old wine in new bottles and shaking it up until it explodes.”
Which sounds a little like what the new stage production is hoping to do. Theresa admits she’s never seen director Neil Jordan’s 1984 movie version, but a modest 1980 BBC radio play - adapted by the author - provided the starting point for a labour of love that has finally come to fruition, not to mention taken on a life of its own.
“I think it’s going to be spectacular, which I think people will find most appealing. It’s a really exciting horror story, so everything you might like about horror on television or on film you’ll find in it, but also there’s the very spectacular element of the circus. People won’t have seen anything like it.”
Feature by Steve Adams
The Company Of Wolves shows at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, from Friday 20 September to Saturday 12 October