VIDEO: Michael Morpurgo classic Kensuke’s Kingdom comes to Crawley

The piece tells the tale of Michael, a young boy who goes on a fantastic sailing adventure with his parents around the world. But their dream becomes a nightmare when the boat is hit by a terrifying storm and Michael is thrown into the sea. Washed up alone on an island in the Pacific, he fights for survival before making a startling discovery... the island is already home to one extraordinary man: this is Kensuke's Kingdom.

Playing Michael’s mum is Jo Calderwood who is loving the challenge of it all: “We started rehearsing on March 16 and so we only get a couple of weeks. It's a really quite intense rehearsal process but I think that is really good. I really enjoy that. Even at school I was always a bit last minute with my homework and I just like having a deadline to work to. I do like to work really quite close to the bone. It feels like a really good way of concentrating.

“The book came out in 1999 and we were thinking whether it came out before or after the Tom Hanks film Castaway which deals with quite a few similar things but actually the book came out a couple of years before the film. But when you read it you're struck by quite a few things that are very similar, for instance Michael in the book has got a football that was given to him by a friend that he takes with him and in the film there's also a football.

“I'm playing the mother and she goes on a bit of a journey like all the characters in the book do. She definitely starts off as really quite headstrong. She's very nurturing and she's very much the matriarch and she is the one that's really got her head screwed on. Her husband James is someone a bit more childlike, I think, and a bit more free as a character and also a bit more creative. The mother also has a lot of fun but she is a bit more in control. She does let her hair down because both her son and her husband give her per mission to do that but she is the one that gives structure to the family because she knows that the family needs some structure. She is the skipper of the yacht and she is in charge but at one point she is poorly. It is never really stipulated why she is poorly and we just don't know but that's a starting point for things to go little bit of awry. I'm really looking forward to playing her. She's so headstrong but she has a lovely freedom and cheekiness about her and I think that's what attracted her husband to her. I'd never read the book before. I don't have children. And when I read it for the audition I was just stunned by it. It's beautifully written and it actually made me cry – in a good way! The story itself is beautiful and the family really brave. They decide to go against the grain and go on an adventure and I was moved by the whole book. I really was.

“I have never performed in Crawley before but I've known a couple of people who have performed there in the past. I just heard about the role through my agent and it's just always lovely to be discovering a new theatre.”