Crawley's home-grown Skellig gets ready for the stage

Moving house has been hard for 12-year-old Michael, and now his baby sister is ill in hospital, it seems his whole world has been turned upside down.

Exploring the crumbling garage of his new home he makes an extraordinary discovery in the dust and junk. A strange creature, Skellig – is it a man or an animal? Together with his new friend Mina he sets out on a beautiful adventure.

The winner of the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year and Carnegie Medal, Skellig comes to The Hawth Studio in a brand-new staging by Parkwood Productions, adapted for the theatre by its author David Almond, featuring a community cast alongside a line-up of professional actors.

Playing Michael’s dad is Ed Petrie, well known to generations of children and young adults across the country as a regular face on the children’s TV channel CBBC where he has starred in shows including Marrying Mum and Dad, All Over the Place and Ed & Oucho’s Excellent Inventions (for which he was BAFTA nominated). He also appeared on TV shows Smack the Pony and Green Wing.

“I think it is a piece that is very apt for our times,” says Ed. “It’s about a family that are going through a trauma. They’ve moved into the new house and they’ve got a baby but there is something wrong with the baby and the whole family is on tenterhooks. You never actually know what is wrong with her. There’s quite a lot that is just a little bit vague. I am the dad but you never know my name. But it’s a really rich piece and you can enjoy it at so many different levels.

“Obviously there is the fantastical level which is all part of it.

“The baby is premature and they were going to fix up this tumbledown cottage for the baby but they just haven’t had time to do it and the house is tumbling down and then while he is exploring Michael finds this old homeless man and he starts to wonder…”

For Ed, the show is a return to a familiar area. He lives in London now but went to school at Ardingly College.

“I was just scouring the castings and saw that this came up. I read the book and I thought it was really good. This is only my second dramatic role. I’ve been doing children’s TV mostly and comedy. I started off acting. I did drama college and then I did stand-up comedy and then fell into TV. I’ve been full time on kids TV since 2005 but I’m approaching an age where I just wanted to branch out a little bit. I suppose I’m trying to get back to my roots. If push came to shove and I had to decide between acting and presenting and comedy I would have to say that I’ve always wanted to be an actor. When I was six years old, I just found that that was what I wanted to do, just to be a massive show off, I suppose!”

The role of the Michael will be played by film and stage actor Andrew Colter (A Christmas Carol, The Tempest, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Sarafina Doussay will portray the nine-year-old, William Blake-loving Mina.

Tickets are available at hawth.co.uk or 01293 553636.

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