Brought to life by writer Carl Grose (Dead Dog in a Suitcase, Tristan and Yseult), director Tom Morris (Swallows and Amazons, War Horse) and composed by Tim Phillips and Marc Teitler, ‘The Grinning Man’ is a brand new musical, based on ‘The Man Who Laughs’ by Victor Hugo.
The king is dead, but who the hell cares? A strange new act has arrived at the fair in the centre of the capital, a grotesque oasis of entertainment. Soon everyone from the gutter-rats to the new queen has fallen for the hand-made freak Grinpayne and his hideously beautiful face. But who is he really? And how did he come to be so marked? Together with an old man, a blind girl and wolf, he has a story to tell. A tale so tragic and so strange that not even he can guess how it will end.
Cracked hearts. Strange fates. Monstrous souls. Impossible dreams. ‘The Grinning Man’ is a wonderfully weird and wickedly wild new musical that offers a vision of how an alternate history might have unfolded.
Tim Phillips – http://www.electrictp.com/