Paul Auster’s City of Glass

Adapted by Duncan Macmillan from the first novel of The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster and the graphic novel by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli

Directed by Leo Warner

A 59 Productions, Lyric Hammersmith and HOME production

Thursday 20 April – Saturday 13 May 2017

Press Performance: Wednesday 26 April 2017 at 7pm

City of Glass, the first part of Paul Auster’s landmark three part novel, The New York Trilogy, will be brought vividly to life on the Lyric stage in a dazzlingly original stage adaptation by Tony Awardwinning 59 Productions (An American in Paris, War Horse, David Bowie Is) and Olivier Award-nominated playwright Duncan Macmillan (People, Places and Things, 1984).

In 2017, Auster turns 70 and The New York Trilogy, his first-ever work of prose fiction marks three decades in publication. The first part of this celebrated trilogy, which has captivated the imaginations of readers across the world, will be staged in Manchester and London ahead of its international tour. “It was a wrong number that started it.” When reclusive crime writer Daniel Quinn receives a mysterious phone call from a man seeking a private detective in the middle of the night, he quickly and unwittingly becomes the protagonist in a real-life thriller of his own. He falls under the spell of a strange and seductive woman, who engages him to protect her young husband from his sociopathic father. As the familiar territory of the noir detective genre gives way to something altogether more disturbing and unpredictable, Quinn becomes consumed by his mission, and begins to lose his grip on reality. Will he be drawn deeper into the abyss, or might unmasking this dark story of familial abuse and religious conspiracy provide the purpose and meaning he needs to rebuild his shattered life?

59 Productions is adapting this extraordinary and hallucinatory literary thriller for the stage in collaboration with writer Duncan Macmillan (Lungs, People, Places and Things, 1984), renowned Danish choreographer and movement director Kim Brandstrup (London Royal Ballet, Danish Royal Ballet, Rambert) and a Tony and Olivier award-winning creative team including sound designer Gareth Fry (The Encounter, Let the Right One In, Harry Potter) and composer Nick Powell (Wolf Hall, The Nether, The Wonderful World of Dissocia). Featuring design inspired by the acclaimed graphic novel by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli, this brand new production will feature many of the ground-breaking techniques that have made 59 Productions “the leading purveyors of video for theatre in the world” (The Guardian). Cutting-edge projection-mapping, combined with stagecraft, magic and illusion will immerse audiences into Quinn’s increasingly dystopic and fragmented world.

Written by Paul Auster, Adapted by Duncan Macmillan, Directed by Leo Warner, Set Design by Jenny Melville, Video Design by Lysander Ashton Movement by Kim Brandstrup Sound by Gareth Fry Original music by Nick Powell