Can a former paratrooper shake off the horrific consequences of war and become a loving dad? That’s the question posed by new comic drama Delivery, which comes to the Lion and Unicorn Theatre next month. Book your tickets now!
The new play by Andy Walker runs at the Kentish Town venue from 15 to 19 October 2019.
The future should look bright for Joe. He loves his wife Angela, and they’re expecting their first baby. However, as he awaits the delivery, Joe’s deeply troubled character emerges. He’s haunted by events he experienced, and participated in, during a brutal war. Can anything save his soul? Can a former paratrooper shake off the horrific consequences of war and become a loving dad?
Delivery is a journey to the edge of oblivion, which travels a road lined with humour, humanity and hope. It is a life-affirming comedy-drama featuring depressed fruit flies and existential sheep.
Walker and the show’s director Lesley Manning originally started researching the Falklands conflict because it was labelled “a politicians’ war” – but those most deeply affected by the brutal, hand-to-hand conflict were those on the front line. In fact, more soldiers who fought in the Falklands have died by their own hands since the conflict ended than did during the war that ran for 10 weeks in 1982.
Tracy Beaker
Playwright Walker is best known for his work as an animator. He created the animations for hugely popular children’s series Tracy Beaker, Show Me Show Me and Jackanory Junior. His latest animation, Behind The Couch, has been sold to 25 countries.
Manning is an award-winning director for stage and screen whose work includes the groundbreaking and iconic British horror film Ghostwatch, which fooled the nation when it was screened as a supposed documentary in 1992. Other directorial credits include TV serial Bloodrights and short films Curtain Call and The Vest. For stage, she has directed As She Likes It at the Cockpit Theatre, St Valentine’s Day Sperm Massacre at the Bread & Roses Theatre and Border, also written by Walker, at Southwark Playhouse and the Tabard Theatre.
Alex Walton leads the cast as paratrooper Joe, with Lizzie Aaryn-Stanton as Angela, Gordon Peaston as the sergeant major, the padré, and a licentious slug, and Barnaby Taylor as a posh officer, a depressed fruit fly and a philosophising sheep.
Delivery ran earlier this year at the Barnes Festival when it received a rave reception from a packed audience. Matthew Grierson said of the show: “DELIVERY delivers… such a pacey production.”
Barnes Festival gallery
The autumn season at the Lion and Unicorn is packed with exciting productions, ranging from the current premiere of At Last to a revival of Andrew Bovell’s award-winning When The Rain Stops Falling, and from religious satire God 2.0 to a revival of Anthony Neilson’s dark comedy Penetrator.
