Baxter Theatre Centre and Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus

J.M. Coetzee’s

Life & Times of Michael K

adapted by Lara Foot

in collaboration with the Handspring Puppet Company

directed by Lara Foot

puppetry direction Adrian Kohlerand Basil Jones, Handspring

Life & Times of Michael K, is a hugely ambitious theatrical staging of Nobel Prize-winning author J.M. Coetzee’s novel which combines puppetry, performance, film and evocative music bringing together some of South Africa’s most revered, multi-award-winning artists in this epic production adapted and directed by Lara Foot.

Coetzee’s Booker Prize-winning novel tells the hauntingly beautiful story of Michael K, a simple man who embarks on a journey through South Africa, a country ravaged by civil war, to return his mother to die on the farm where she was born. During this journey, he finds strength in his own humanity, his profound connection to the earth and his unique path which, as it unfolds, reveals to him, his reason for living.

The Tony Award-winning Handspring Puppet Company are best known for creating the spectacular puppets in the West End and Broadway productions of Warhorse and more recently Little Amal, the puppet refugee who has walked across Europe.

The production recently won the South African Fleur du Cap Best Production Award.

26 July

Post-show talk with the company

  • Please contact the Box Office for accessible seating reservations upon booking tickets.