His Dark Materials

A two-play dramatisation of Philip Pullman's extraordinary award-winning fantasy trilogy, first seen at the National Theatre.His Dark Materials takes us on a thrilling journey through worlds familiar and unknown.

For Lyra and Will, its two central characters, it's a coming of age and a transforming spiritual experience. Their great quest demands a savage struggle against the most dangerous of enemies. They encounter fantastical creatures in parallel worlds - rebellious angels, soul-eating spectres, child-catching Gobblers and the armoured bears and witch-clans of the Arctic. Finally, before reaching, perhaps, the republic of heaven, they must visit the land of the dead.

This adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, by Nicholas Wright, was first performed at the National Theatre in London in 2003

It is difficult to convey the scale of rapture - and of box-office revenue - created by Nicholas Wright's dramatisation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials for the National Theatre. With every performance sold out even before the press-night, the show was brought back for an even longer run. Nicholas Wright revisited his adaptation, tightening and improving it, and this revised version was published alongside the re-opening.

Though conceived for a theatre with rich resources, this adaptation can also be staged in imaginative ways without the aid of sophisticated technology or complex apparatus, and has become a firm favourite with schools, colleges and community theatre groups.