November/December 2006 Production

Return to the Forbidden Planet

Written by Bob Carlton and Directed by Jeremy Nicholls
Musical Direction by Simon James
Choreography by Louise Canfield and Nicola Howcroft

Synopsis

Fasten your seatbelts, return your tray tables to the upright position and prepare to blast off! Loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest and the 1956 sci-fi classic film Forbidden Planet, Return to the Forbidden Planet finds a spaceship, helmed by Captain Tempest, making an emergency landing on the uncharted planet D’Illyria. The only residents there are the mad scientist Doctor Prospero, his daughter Miranda, and their robot Ariel. They were banished into hyperspace when Miranda was just a baby. Featuring rock ‘n’roll hits of the 50s and 60s (“Great Balls of Fire”, “The Monster Mash”, “Good Vibrations”, and others), a B-movie atmosphere, and dialogue in iambic pentameter, Return to the Forbidden Planet is Shakespeare’s unwritten rock ‘n’ roll masterpiece. Throw in a roller-skating robot, unrequited love, and a scary space monster, and you’ve got one groovy show!