Matthew Bourne's The Car Man

The Car Man comes to the Congress Theatre from Wednesday 18 to Saturday 21 November, with Will Bozier in the lead role of Luca. It's Matthew Bourne's dance thriller, loosely based on Bizet's Carmen, and it's one of New Adventures' most recognisable pieces.

Bourne takes the 19th-century Spanish cigarette factory and moves it to a greasy 1950s garage-diner in the American Mid-West. The story kicks off when a handsome, enigmatic stranger arrives in town and throws the whole place into a spiral of greed, lust, betrayal and revenge. There are no spoken words, so the whole thing is told through dance, and Bourne bills it as an auto-erotic dance thriller that ignites the senses and leaves the audience breathless.

It's not a new one. It opened in Plymouth in May 2000, then played London's Old Vic for a 19-week run and picked up the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Musical Event. From there it toured the UK and internationally in 2001 and 2002, and was filmed at Pinewood Studios in 2001. Critics have called it gripping, gasp-making and a shatteringly good piece of storytelling.

Will Bozier takes the lead as Luca, with the whole thing directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne. The music is by Terry Davies, who incorporates Rodion Shchedrin's Carmen Suite. It runs from Wednesday 18 to Saturday 21 November at the Congress Theatre, Carlisle Road, Eastbourne, BN21 4BP.