Oddsocks return to Derby in February with The Adventures of Pinocchio!
Derby-based theatre company Oddsocks Productions return to Derby this February. This time, the team known for bringing classic tales to life with a difference will be adding their inimitable trademark humour, live music and audience interaction to Carlo Collodi’s classic tale in Andy Barrow’s brand-new piece “The Adventures of Pinocchio”.
The family-run theatre company has been creating innovative and hilarious adaptations of classic texts since 1989 and their latest production promises to be no exception. Whether it’s a live on-stage car chase (Romeo and Juliet, 2009) or Prospero as a Star Wars Jedi (The Tempest, 2018), Oddsocks exceed boundaries when it comes to creating memorable and unique comedy productions of the classics.
Pinocchio is a poignant tale that focuses on the themes of family, transformation, morality and what it takes to become a ‘real’ human. Dating back from 1881, Pinocchio has proved to be a versatile classic, accomplished by many authors and artists, from Carlo Collodi to Walt Disney.
On why the company has chosen to adapt Pinocchio for their current tour, artistic director and writer of the piece Andy Barrow says: “Pinocchio is a universal story in the sense that it is about becoming a young adult and realising the qualities of a good human being. It’s relatable for a modern audience because they’ll be able to recognise some of the basic challenges in which we face, when trying to make our way in this world”.
Creative Producer Elli adds: “It’s very much about values. It’ll make people think about what their values and morals are. Pinocchio is consistently given choices and sometimes the character chooses the wrong choice and sometimes the character gets it right, which I think it really relevant in our every day society – you know, we don’t get everything right the first time around and I think that’s absolutely OK as it is a lesson learned and those mistakes are what shapes us as human beings”.
Andy continues “Another reason we chose Pinocchio, is simply because it is a well-known tale, however, I think a lot of people saw the Walt Disney version but perhaps have not read the book. It’s always interesting to find out what the original narrative of Pinocchio was. The Disney version was released in the 1940’s which I imagine some of the values espoused in that production may now be outdated, so I think it’ll be interesting to put the story into a modern context”.
“The Adventures of Pinocchio” will play from Friday 7 – Saturday 8 February with a matinee on Saturday at 2:30pm and performances at 7:30pm each evening. Book online via www.oddsocks.co.uk or call 01332 258328.