BRAVE NEW ADAPTATION OF A CLASSIC
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 10 to Saturday 14 November.
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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