Kneehigh Theatre Company presents

Tristan & Yseult

UK September-November 2005. Overseas 2006.

Medium to large scale

Tristan & Yseult takes Cornwall’s oldest and most romantic tale, bringing it crashing into the here and now, mixing live and recorded music with poetry, combat, humour and dance. The style is very much Rat Pack and Tarantino rather than wimples or doublet and horse. It’s a story we all know – one of love and loss. If you’ve ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t have, or pined for someone who only has eyes for another, or been torn apart by the guilt of having two lovers, then you’ll recognise the heart of this passionate and spectacular production.

Emma Rice, Director:

A story of love’s longing, forbidden desires and broken hearts, the agony of choosing one human being over another. We have all been there and Oh! to be in love is overwhelming, exhilarating, and intoxicating. But wait, we are not always lucky enough to be the stars of our lives.

Sometimes we sit at the edges looking politely on – and this lies at the heart of this telling. Our story is witnessed by a chorus of love-spotters: the unloved.

These are the unsung heroes of this piece, the ones who are not chosen, not swept away by fate. And if we have all known love and passion, we have also known the opposite…

love this show.

It is a magic project which has become greater than the sum of its parts.

It has touched, moved and surprised audiences with its tenderness, melancholy, sensuality, humour and honesty.

It is a celebration and a testament to the human condition of being in, or indeed out, of love.