Melly Still Will Direct World Premiere of Bryony Lavery’s The Lovely Bones Stage Adaptation

Bryony Lavery’s stage adaptation of Alice Sebold’s coming-of-age novel The Lovely Bones will make its world premiere September 1 at Royal & Derngate, North Hampton.

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/598cd63515a814c235e78a6878a1de3a-bryony-lavery-2.jpg — Bryony Lavery

Directed by Melly Still, the production will subsequently transfer to partner theatres Everyman Liverpool, Northern Stage, Newcastle, and Birmingham Repertory Theatre. The show will also tour to The New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich.

Sebold’s novel, first published in 2002, tells the story of Susie Salmon, a young girl who can only observe while her family copes with their grief over her murder. Her father is obsessed with identifying the killer, her mother is desperate to create a brighter future, and her sister is discovering the opposite sex with experiences that Susie will never know.

Playwright Lavery’s work includes the Tony-nominated play Frozen (due to be revived in the West End this spring), Stockholm (Frantic Assembly), Kursk (Young Vic), and Beautiful Burnout (National Theatre of Scotland and Frantic Assembly).

Still previously directed the Olivier- and Tony Award-nominated production of Coram Boy (National Theatre and Broadway), My Beautiful Friend (Rose Theatre Kingston), and several recent stagings for Glyndebourne, the National Theatre, and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Casting will be announced at a later date.