Alien invasion story comes to Leighton Buzzard

The Pantaloons will be bringing the HG Wells classic The War of the Worlds to the town’s library theatre on May 2.

Audiences should prepare to look on in abject terror as a multi-talented cast of four use musical instruments, puppetry and, um, enthusiasm to recreate deadly heat-rays, giant fighting-machines, squidgy tentacled Martians and interplanetary warfare on an epic scale.]

This new production of The War of the Worlds continues their tradition of funny, frantic and fast-paced versions of English Literature’s masterworks such as the previously adapted Pride and Prejudice and Bleak House.

Adapter and co-artistic director of the company, Mark Hayward, explains that The Pantaloons want the show to be moving as well as amusing.

“This new adaptation is very faithful to the text,” he says, “which essentially tells the story of one man’s struggle to survive against impossible odds, driven by the hope of being reunited with his wife.

“The trick to not undermining the heart of a book, is to avoid sending up the text itself and instead focus on lampooning theatrical conventions.

“The joke should be about how hard it is to stage a full-blown alien invasion; then we can still tell a tale with pathos and all of H. G. Wells’ insight.

But the show will feature plenty of humour too, with nods to other classic works of science fiction, ingenious cost-saving ‘special’ effects, and plenty to say about terrestrial life in modern Britain.

Tickets for the show are in short supply and should be booked in advance.

For further details or to purchase tickets visit www.leightonbuzzardlibrarytheatre.co.uk