Cirencester's Barn Theatre celebrates fourth anniversary

The Barn Theatre in Cirencester celebrated its fourth anniversary on 16^th March, and continues to celebrate with the opening of their world premiere production of Vicki Berwick’s stage adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s The Mozart Question.

*The theatre, which has spent half of its existence within a global pandemic, gained national recognition having produced over 20 Built by Barn shows and being awarded The Stage Awards’ Best Fringe Theatre of the Year Award 2019.

 The Barn Theatre’s Chief Executive and Artistic Director, Ian Lewis, said:

“I think we’re going from strength to strength, I think we’ve really coming into our own. The 16^th March, which was the day of the birthday, is a pretty significant date in the calendar for us now. We opened in 2018 on the 16^th March and you may remember 16^th March 2020 was the day the world shut down. It’s crazy to think it was the same date we that ended up closing. Now in 2022 we’re celebrating opening a new show - I feel the work is getting stronger with every show, the community is growing, the audiences are growing again amazingly after what we’ve gone through and we’re going from strength to strength.”

'The Mozart Question' , which was originally planned to debut as part of the theatre’s 2020 season, follows acclaimed violinist Paolo Levi as he recounts, to a young reporter, his family’s connection to the Holocaust and the power of music in the hardest of times. The new adaptation will be directed by Jessica Daniels (The Butterfly Lion, Girl From The North Country) and comprise of an actor-musician ensemble with composition, arrangements and musical supervision by Rudy Percival.

Since the first national lockdown, the Cirencester theatre has become renowned for digital theatrical innovation, with content seen by over 330,000 audience members, and and received two New York Times Critic Picks for digital productions.

At the 2022 Off West End Awards the theatre won the OnComm Award for “Recorded Shows (Edited – Significant Edits)” for 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', and the OnComm Award for “Theatre For Young People / Families / Those With Special Needs” for 'Private Peaceful'.

The theatre also recently received a 2021 BroadwayWorld UK Awards “Best New Production Created for Streaming” nomination for 'What a Carve Up!'(produced with Lawrence Batley Theatre & New Wolsey Theatre).

The Mozart Question is a Built by Barn production in association with Bob & Marianne Benton for Anthology Theatre and The Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham.