DIRECTOR and theatre-maker Emma Rice brings her new Wise Children version of the Blue Beard story to Bath Theatre Royal, for its world premiere, from Friday 2nd to Saturday 10th February.

Blue Beard the Magician makes hearts flutter and pupils dilate. With a wink, a stroke and a flick, things just seem to vanish. Cards, coins, scarves… and women. Puff! Gone. Without a trace. He meets his match when his young bride discovers his dark and murderous secret. She summons all her rage, all her smarts and all her sisters to bring the curtain down on his tyrannous reign.

Emma Rice (founder-director of Wise Children, and an acclaimed director with both Cornwall’s Kneehigh Theatre and at Shakespeare’s Globe) brings her own brand of theatrical wonder and imaginative story-telling to this beguiling and disturbing tale. With her signature sleight of hand, Blue Beard explores curiosity and consent, violence and vengeance with music, wit and tender truth. When someone tells you not to look, open the bloody door!

The cast for this world premiere production includes Stu Barker, Mirabelle Gremaud as Lost Sister, Stephanie Hockley as Trouble, Patrycja Kujawska as Treasure, Adam Mirsky as Lost Brother, Katy Owen as Mother Superior, Robyn Sinclair as Lucky, and Tristan Sturrock, one of the region’s best known and respected actors, as Blue Beard.

Photographs by Steve Tanner.