A play which began as a site-specific piece at the Burslem School of Art will have a wider audience when it is performed at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Ugly Duck is the inaugural production of Claybody Theatre, formed by playwright Deborah McAndrew and director Conrad Nelson.
After sell-out performances in Burslem, the play transferred to the Foyle Studio at mac, Birmingham as part of the Capital Theatre Festival.
Deborah McAndrew said, “Claybody is a Stoke-on-Trent company and Ugly Duck has grown out of my experiences of living in the Potteries for the last 13 years and what those experiences have meant to me.
“We’re thrilled to have been asked to remount Ugly Duck for the New Vic. It's a fantastic opportunity to bring this Stoke story to a wider local audience. We at Claybody Theatre love the New Vic and it's wonderful to be working in partnership with them to present this local play.”
Ugly Duck tells the story of Burslem bloke Dennis Hancock who would not win any beauty contests. He is slowly sinking into the ranks of the long-term unemployed.
But when he answers a newspaper advertisement for an artist’s life model, he finds unexpected friends in troubled young artist Kat and her eccentric parents, Mark and Drina. As Kat begins to paint, Dennis finds himself exposed in more ways than one.
The cast features Rachel Austin, who appeared in Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre in 2014, Philip Wright who was in Shakespeare’s The Tempest at the New Vic, James Masters, whose credits include Stageworks Of Mice and Men, and Susan Twist, who played Mrs Hepworth in Hobson’s Choice at the New Vic and Octagon Theatre Bolton in 2014.
Written and directed by Deborah McAndrew, whose play An August Bank Holiday Lark was seen at the New Vic early in 2014, Ugly Duck will be performed at the theatre-in-the-round from Wednesday 3 until Saturday 13 September.