Playbill's 2023 Edinburgh Fringe pick Life & Times of Michael K will get a North American premiere Off-Broadway at St. Ann's Warehouse later this year.
Beginning November 29 and running through December 23, the piece is a puppet show for adults. Put together by the Baxter Theatre Centre and Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, the production is an adaptation of J.M. Coetzee’s 1983 award-winning novel by South African director Lara Foot, with the Tony-winning Handspring Puppet Company (War Horse) leading the charge.
Set during apartheid in the 1970s and ’80s, it is the story of a man who was born with a cleft lip. Growing up in institutions and eventually becoming a gardener in Cape Town, Michael is determined to take his sick mother back to her hometown. But the journey into the countryside, amidst a fictitious civil war, is dangerous—and the trials that await him beyond those he expected.
READ: Playbill Pick: Life & Times of Michael K at Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The creative team includes Foot, who adapted her novel and directs this stage adaptation; set designer Patrick Curtis, original music composer Kyle Shepherd; lighting designer Joshua Cutts; directors of photography and film Fiona McPherson and Barrett de Kock; videographer and editor Yoav Dagan; projection designer Kirsti Cumming; costume designer Phyllis Midlane; and sound designer Simon Kohler.
The cast consists of nine South African performers, led by puppet master Craig Leo, with puppeteers Roshina Ratnam and Markus Schabbing, and actors Sandra Prinsloo, Andrew Buckland, Wessel Pretorius, Faniswa Yisa, Carlo Daniels, Billy Langa, and Nolufefe Ntshuntshe.
