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.