British pilot Peter (Tristan Sturrock) tells radio operator June (Lyndsey Marshal) how he seems to have miraculously cheated death after an air crashPhotograph: Tristram KentonWheeling around: bicycles play a sort of supporting role in Kneehigh's productionPhotograph: Tristram KentonThe film's dandified angelic messenger is reimagined in the play as a Norwegian circus artist, Conductor 71 (Gisli Orn Garddarsson)Photograph: Tristram Kenton
Peter is startled by the angelic messenger's demands that he return to heavenPhotograph: Steve Tanner/PRHaving fallen for June, Peter is heartbroken by the news that heaven awaits himPhotograph: Steve Tanner/PRThe play within the play: an amateur production of A Midsummer Night's Dream takes place in a hospitalPhotograph: Tristram KentonOne of the patients (Mike Shepherd) plays the part of Bottom, who later becomes a kind of deathly spirit chasing PeterPhotograph: Tristram KentonTeasing out one of the film's loose threads, Shakespeare's fairies and the dream world become major themes in Kneehigh's productionPhotograph: Tristram KentonLove hangs in the balance: will Peter be reprieved, or must he and June part?Photograph: Tristram KentonA ghostly victim of a bombing raid embodies the grim cost of war, emphasised far more visibly in Kneehigh's adaptation than in Powell and Pressburger's originalPhotograph: Steve Tanner/PR
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