BRAVE NEW ADAPTATION
OF A CLASSIC
Brave New World
Darlington Civic Theatre
Tuesday 10th to
Saturday
14th November 2015
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| Photo: Manuel Harlan |
Darlington
Civic Theatre will soon welcome a brand new stage adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s
ground-breaking novel Brave New World, presented by Touring Consortium Theatre
Company and Royal & Derngate Northampton which will run from Tuesday 10th
to Saturday 14th November 2015.
Brave
New World, widely considered to be one of the finest and most prophetic
dystopian novels of the twentieth century, bursts into life on stage in an
adaptation by award-winning playwright Dawn King, directed by James Dacre, with
original new music by the ground breaking British band These New Puritans.
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Olivia Morgan (Lenina) &
Samantha Pearl (Polly)
Photo: Manuel Harlan
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Aldous
Huxley’s Brave New World was first published in 1932, and is widely seen to be
one of the most important novels of the 20th century, anticipating developments
in reproductive technology, psychological manipulation and behavioural
conditioning. Set in AD 2540 human life has been almost entirely
industrialised, and humans are created and conditioned in a lab according to a
strict caste system, in a World State whose motto is
“Community, Identity, Stability”. Monogamy, the family unit and the ‘natural’
process of giving birth, are considered horrific and unnatural, and material
comfort and physical pleasure - provided by the drug soma - represent society’s
highest good.
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| Photo: Manuel Harlan |
Dawn
King said, “Huxley's novel is over eighty years old, but his vision of the
future is shockingly familiar. In many ways, we already live in Brave New
World: a glittering dystopia built on inequality, where people keep themselves distracted
with empty pleasures, chemical stimulants and consumer goods. Adapting this
huge work for the stage has been as tough and stimulating as anything I've ever
done and a huge pleasure.”
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Sophie Ward
as Margaret Mond
Photo: Manuel Harlan
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Sophie
Ward stars as ‘Margaret Mond – the Regional World Controller for Western Europe’, which in Huxley’s novel
is a male character. Dawn King said, “I took this decision primarily because as
a feminist, I wanted to increase the gender equality of the show. I also felt
that having a female world controller of Western Europe is more representative
of our world today, and of a world of the future. In the novel the character is
called ‘Mustapha Mond’, but in my adaptation I chose the name Margaret, for its
obvious allusions. I think Sophie Ward is a great choice to play the role
because ‘Mond’ is a person who has had to make hard decisions, has a strong
sense of her own personal morality, and has real steely authority.”
Tickets:
Brave
New World is at Darlington Civic Theatre from Tuesday 10 to Saturday 14
November. Tickets* are priced from £17.40
*All
ticket prices include a £1 restoration levy.
To
book contact the Box Office on 01325 486 555 or visit www.darlingtoncivic.co.uk
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