Blackpool Grand Theatre is to host the world première new staging of Aldous Huxley’s futuristic classic Brave New World from November 24-28.
Considered to be one of the finest dystopian novels of the 20th century, this is an adaptation by award-winning playwright Dawn King, directed by James Dacre and designed by Naomi Dawson, with original new music by British band These New Puritans.
Acclaimed British actress Sophie Ward (Land Girls, Heartbeat, Holby City) will star as Margaret Mond, the Regional World Controller for Western Europe.
In Huxley’s novel, Mond is a male character, but playwright 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—qualities I think Sophie will accentuate.”
Set 600 years in the future, human life has been almost entirely industrialised, and humans are created and conditioned in a lab 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 and recreational sex—represent society’s highest good.