'Say your prayers and Be Good Too



Or Dead Papa Toothwort Is Coming For You.'

Not far from Bristol, there is a village. It belongs to the people who live in it and to those who lived in it hundreds of years ago. It belongs to England's mysterious past and its confounding present. It belongs to families dead for generations, and to those who have only recently moved here, such as Lanny and his mum and dad.

But it also belongs to Dead Papa Toothwort, who has woken from his slumber in the woods. Dead Papa Toothwort, who is listening to them all.

Lanny is a dark and powerful story of folklore, fable and the nature of belonging. Max Porter's critically acclaimed, bestselling novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Bea Roberts' stage adaptation was premiered at Bristol Old Vic in 2026, co-produced with English Touring Theatre and directed by Nancy Medina.

'A joyously stirred cauldron of words… remarkable for its simultaneous spareness and extravagance' Guardian on Max Porter's original novel

'It's hard to express how much I loved Lanny. Books this good don't come along very often. It's a novel like no other, an exhilarating, disquieting, joyous read. It will reach into your chest and take hold of your heart. It's a novel to press into the hands of everyone you know and say, read this' Maggie O'Farrell



Max Porter is a multi-award-winning writer, whose novels include Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, The Death of Francis Bacon and Shy. Bea Roberts is a multi-award winning West Country playwright whose work includes And Then Come the Nightjars, Ivy Tiller: Vicar's Daughter, Squirrel Killer and The Whitby Rebels.



'Haunting... This Country meets Stranger Things... Bea Roberts does a deft job of adapting the novel's mixer-blend of reality, imagination and hallucinatory bucolic lore. The production is full of pace and creepiness... an accomplished bridging of the dark and scary with the satirical and light'



'Folk horror with an urban twist... a handsomely mounted, alluring production'



'Incredible beyond words... a dark and powerful blend of reality, folklore and imagination... devastating and thought-provoking... Whether you've read the original novel or have no knowledge of the story, this is a piece of theatre that will grip you from the start and stay in your mind for a long time'



'This is theatre with real imaginative nerve. Roberts and Medina have found a stage language equal to Porter's peculiar novel without attempting to reproduce its tricks. Their Lanny is funny, frightening and emotionally devastating, rooted firmly in West Country soil while constantly listening for what might be moving underneath it'



'Bea Roberts' spirited adaptation paints a picture of the urban-rural divide, the power of storytelling and a search for English identity... folklore and myth brought to life with imaginative stagecraft'



'Bea Roberts' adaptation does wonders with difficult material to produce coherent and fast-flowing storytelling... turning a demanding text into theatrical reality'