Suzanne Collins' bestselling novel The Hunger Games is coming to the stage in a new adaptation from Girl From the North Country writer Conor McPherson. Directed by Matthew Dunster (2:22 - A Ghost Story), the play will premiere in London in fall 2024.
The production will feature scenic design by Miriam Buether, costume design by Moi Tran, choreography by Charlotte Broom, lighting design by Lucy Carter, sound design by Ian Dickinson for Autograph, video design by Tal Rosner, fight direction by Kev McCurdy, and performer flying by Suspended Illusions. Amy Ball is casting, and Gary Beestone is serving as production manager.
The Hunger Games is the first in a series of novels by Collins, all of which take place in a dystopian future in which children from poverty-stricken districts are selected via a lottery to participate in a televised death match. First published in 2008, the series quickly became a bestseller, spawning a film series in 2012. The forthcoming play will be based solely on the first book of the series, and its screen version (written by Gary Ross, Collins, and Billy Ray).
"To receive Suzanne Collins’ blessing to adapt The Hunger Games for the stage is both humbling and inspiring," says McPherson in a statement. "She has created a classic story which continues to resonate now more than ever. In a world where the truth itself seems increasingly up for grabs, The Hunger Games beautifully expresses values of resilience, self-reliance, and independent moral inquiry for younger people especially. This is turbo-charged storytelling of the highest order, and I’m hugely excited to bring it to a new generation of theatregoers and to Suzanne Collins’ longstanding and devoted fans."
The play will be the latest attempt to bring an action-adventure book series to the stage, following Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Lord of the Rings the Musical, and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, among others. While action has typically been difficult to bring to the live stage, the worldwide success of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, in particular, is likely inspiring similar efforts from other such properties.
Tristan Baker and Charlie Parsons of Runaway Entertainment, Oliver Royds of BOS Productions, and Isobel David are producing, by arrangement with Hunger Games film studio Lionsgate.
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