A comic midsummer fantasy

Sinister Warren, the country house of the mysterious, puckish Lob, is the venue for a curious summer party. None of the guests knows their host – or seem to have anything in common with each other – whilst Lob himself is interested only in spinning wild tales about an enchanted wood, which according to local legend appears once a year on Midsummer’s Eve . . .

And the guests themselves could certainly do with some enchantment. Jack and Mabel Purdie’s marriage is threatened by his dalliance with Joanna Trott: curious that Lob should have invited all three. Artist Will Dearth and his wife are embittered by their childless state – and he’s drinking too much. An older couple, the Coades, seem comfortable and content, but is it just habit? And the snobbish Lady Caroline is alone and loveless.

Then, on Midsummer’s Eve, as the guests prepare to take an evening stroll, a moonlit wood appears as if by magic on the very spot where Lob’s garden had once stood. Transfixed, Lob reveals that, according to legend, in the wood you get what all of his guests secretly wish for: a second chance at life . . .

And one by one, they venture out into the trees, desperate to discover what might have been . . . and enter a world of enchantment, and confusion, and unexpected possibilities . . .

J. M. Barrie’s delightful, touching comedy-drama from 1917 is full of the author’s characteristic wit, imagination and understanding. Following our acclaimed revival of Barrie’s What Every Woman Knows in 2009, this will be an entertaining, stylish and magical journey into the woods!

" . . . enchanting . . . a fertile, characteristically unsettling mix of comic whimsy and emotional agony"
The Independent

" . . . another haunting masterpiece by this strange, sentimental, deeply unsettling writer" The Daily Telegraph