Written by Michael Morpurgo. Directed by Dani Parr.
The show has been seen and enjoyed by over 80,000 people, including two hugely successful seasons at Vaudeville Theatre in London’s West End, a Christmas season at Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond and was part of Imagine Children’s Festival at Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank.
The show premiered at Pleasance Theatre – Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013 and returned in 2019. Toured nationally and ran in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Argus Angel Award Winner for Artistic Excellence – Brighton Festival 2014
Reviews
The Stage **** Dave Fargnoli
Kate Bunce’s smart set depicts a dilapidated building cluttered with wooden ladders and great piles of books… this place is filled with magic: the stacked books conceal a huge array of tiny props between their well-worn covers, which Miller exuberantly retrieves during her narrative. Pop-up books open to present houses and forests, torn paper is transformed into origami puppets, and open pages become canvases for video projections.
All this inventive design gels neatly with the production’s themes around nurturing imagination and encouraging free thinking. Ultimately, the production itself becomes a demonstration of the power of expertly told stories to inspire both.
Daily Express **** Neil Norman
Miller delivers a one-woman show that is pure storytelling, pure theatre and pure magic.
The Times **** Victoria Segal
Kate bunces whimsically inventive set. Each book contains treasure, …the page spilling delights across the stage.
The Guardian Miriam Gillison
The set comes to life, as the books release the magic captured within their covers. Miller opens up one book to reveal a delicate model of a house, with lights glistening in the windows. She opens another and pours real milk from the pages. A ladder is pulled from one book jacket and a rope from another. In Blue’s favourite sequence, Miller darts about the stage with a kite, pulling it from one book and then another until, finally, a huge kite swings from the rafters.
There are some beautiful projections to fire up the imagination. In one scene, Miller pulls open a huge book and an image of young Tomas, running and laughing, is projected across its pages. Later, a parasol is opened out and a songbird is projected onto its spinning and floating surface.
I Believe in Unicorns taps into the inspiration and solace that books can provide. Its beauty is that it allows us to share those imagined new worlds together.
Broadway Baby Tom Moyser
Kate Bunce’s exquisitely designed set.
The Arts Desk Isabella Gallager
The delicate design by Kate Bunce is whimsical and alive with meaning,
MUST SEE SHOW – Wizard Presents creates an utterly magical stage adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s enthralling children’s tale the stage