Jack Thorne Is Captivating Audiences Yet Again with Two New Productions
Jack Thorne, the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child playwright, is back in the spotlight as he talks about his two (yes, two!) new productions that are ready to take the London theater scene by storm in 2017!
Junkyard
The BAFTA award-winning writer responsible for bringing the Harry Potter franchise to the big stage is yet again ready to inspire the masses. His two productions include an adaptation of Georg Bchüner’s Woyzeck and his very own musical called Junkyard.
Woyzeck, featuring Star Wars’ most recent stormtrooper, John Boyega, is based on Bchüner’s unfinished novel, which follows a German soldier in the 1980s who suffers from mental health issues. Thorne saw this adaption as a chance to signify the untold stories of young soldiers after seeing how many of his classmates were similarly affected after joining the army. Thorne himself describes his adaptation below.
What I’ve tried to do is tell it a bit more straightforwardly as a tragedy, and so it’s probably the most mainstream version Woyzeck’s seen in a while. Whether that’s good or bad, I don’t know, but it’s been really amazing to work on it.
Thorne lets the audience make up their own minds regarding his mainstream approach to the novel when the curtains open at the Old Vic in Waterloo!
Most fans will also want to get tickets for Thorne’s much-anticipated musical entitled Junkyard. The story follows Rick, a disillusioned adult who goes about recruiting a gang of unwilling teenagers to help him create a playground made entirely of junk. The musical is entirely Thorne’s invention and is based on a similar venture his own father undertook back in the ’70s in Bristol, where Thorne grew up.
Audience members will get to listen to music by the distinguished composer Stephen Warbeck, best known for his work on films such as, but not limited to, Billy Elliot and Shakespeare in Love. Thorne described Warbeck’s music as tremendously helpful when it came to the tricky task of truthfully representing the teenagers and their personalities, which he admits is one of the main reasons he decided to make this production a musical.
There’s always a worry with these things that someone will have to say something cheesy at a certain moment, and the good thing about musicals are that they are an opportunity to see inside someone’s brain.
Tickets for Junkyard are available at the Rose Theatre in Kingston for anyone wishing to see a musical from the creative mind who helped bring Cursed Child to life!
So why not grab some tickets? Don’t be a rubbish fan! (Get it?)
Let us know what you think in the comments and read the full interview with Jack Thorne here!