Bright Phoenix

I am flying. I swoop over the rooftops of Liverpool, over the waterfront and out to sea, following a trawler as it drags its nets through the wild sea. I am a sixteen-year-old bird boy, addicted to seagull blood, flying through sea-storms, up to the moon . . . On the run from tragedy, Lucas escaped Liverpool - then a city cast aside, a city crumbling. Now he's back, the old gang don't rush to welcome him home and ghosts haunt the ruins of their childhood playgrounds. The city chases renaissance: could his love affair with childhood sweetheart Lizzie blossom again too? Bright Phoenix is a wild, dream-like play about the carnival of the city at night; about a gang of rebel kids who still don't quite fit in as grown-ups; and about their love for a dying cinema and their mad plan to bring it back to life like a phoenix. Featuring live music, Jeff Young's epic and poetic play reveals the magic of forgotten places and dreaming beneath the stars. The play received its world premiere at the Liverpool Everyman on 3 October 2014.