Lanny

Not far from Bristol, there is a village.

This village belongs to the people who live in it and to those who lived in it hundreds of years ago. It belongs to England’s mysterious past and its confounding present.

It belongs to families dead for generations, and to those who have only recently moved here, such as the boy Lanny, and his mum and dad.

But it also belongs to Dead Papa Toothwort, who has woken from his slumber in the woods. Dead Papa Toothwort, who is listening to them all.

By the author of Sunday Times Bestseller Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Max Porter’s spectral novel Lanny rocked the literary world in 2019. Described as “a joyously stirred cauldron of words” (The Guardian) that is “magically beguiling” (Financial Times), it intertwines reality and imagination to thrillingly eerie effect.

Adapted for the stage by award-winning West Country playwright Bea Roberts (And Then Come the Nightjars), and directed by Nancy Medina (The Beautiful Future Is Coming; A Good House; Choir Boy – Best Director, Black British Theatre Awards 2024), this dark and powerful story of folklore, fable and the nature of belonging is the flagship production of our 260th year.