Wise Children

In Brixton, Nora and Dora Chance – twin chorus girls born and bred south of the river – are celebrating their 75th birthday. Over the river in Chelsea, their father and greatest actor of his generation Melchior Hazard turns 100 on the same day. As does his twin brother Peregrine. If, in fact, he’s still alive. And if, in truth, Melchior is their real father after all…

Wise Children is adapted for the stage from Angela Carter’s last novel about a theatrical family living in South London. It centres around twin chorus girls, Nora and Dora Chance, whose lives are brimming with mystery, illegitimacy  and scandal. 

Dora narrates the story as her older self, looking back on a tumultuous life, throughout which she and her sister have loved to sing and dance. A big, bawdy tangle of theatrical joy and heartbreak, Wise Children is a celebration of show business, family, forgiveness and hope. Expect show girls and Shakespeare, sex and scandal, music, mischief and mistaken identity – and butterflies by the thousand.

Author Biography

Emma Rice is the Artistic Director of theatre company, Wise Children, formed in 2018. As Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe (2016/18), she directed ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS, TWELFTH NIGHT, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL (and Other Happier Tales).

For the previous 20 years, she worked for Kneehigh as an actor, director and Artistic Director. Her productions for Kneehigh include: THE FLYING LOVERS OF VITEBSK, TRISTAN & YSEULT, 946: THE AMAZING STORY OF ADOLPHUS TIPS, THE WILD BRIDE, THE RED SHOES, THE WOODEN FROCK, THE BACCHAE, CYMBELINE (in association with RSC), A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (in association with National Theatre), RAPUNZEL (in association with Battersea Arts Centre), BRIEF ENCOUNTER (in association with David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers Productions), DON JOHN (in association with the RSC and Bristol Old Vic), WAH! WAH! GIRLS (in association with Sadler’s Wells and Theatre Royal Stratford East for World Stages) and STEPTOE AND SON.

Other work includes: the West End production of THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, OEDIPUSSY (Spymonkey); THE EMPRESS (RSC); and AN AUDIENCE WITH MEOW MEOW (Berkeley Repertory Theatre).