A Matter of Life and Death

British pilot Peter (Tristan Sturrock) tells radio operator June (Lyndsey Marshal) how he seems to have miraculously cheated death after an air crash Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Wheeling around: bicycles play a sort of supporting role in Kneehigh's production Photograph: Tristram Kenton

The 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 heaven Photograph: Steve Tanner/PR

Having fallen for June, Peter is heartbroken by the news that heaven awaits him Photograph: Steve Tanner/PR

The play within the play: an amateur production of A Midsummer Night's Dream takes place in a hospital Photograph: Tristram Kenton

One of the patients (Mike Shepherd) plays the part of Bottom, who later becomes a kind of deathly spirit chasing Peter Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Teasing out one of the film's loose threads, Shakespeare's fairies and the dream world become major themes in Kneehigh's production Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Love hangs in the balance: will Peter be reprieved, or must he and June part? Photograph: Tristram Kenton

A 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 original Photograph: Steve Tanner/PR