Brave New World, a dystopian novel written by Aldous Huxley in 1931, has been bravely adapted for theatre by Dawn King. The stage adaptation is careful to relay the key themes of the novel, which is concerned with whether individuals can be free under an authoritarian state which uses genetic engineering and psychological conditioning to give birth to test tube babies, engineered to fulfil specific social roles. Embryos are developed with varying levels of intelligence, and abilities. They are being designed to fulfil specific work requirements, whether in hospitals, conditioning schools to create conformist children, laboratories, or to withstand work in smelly sewers or polluting and poisoning heavy material factories.
Ultimately, this results in the engineering of specified castes of society, namely those who rule, do empowering work, and wear beautiful clothes, and those that serve and make the things that they cannot themselves afford. These are themes that resonate today, with the UK becoming the most unequal society in Europe, and contending to lead on inequality in the developed world. King powerfully relates the themes from 1931 to today in her stage adaptation. She updates some of the genetic engineering science, while communicating some of the most prescient elements of the novel in an incredibly accessible way.
One of the early scenes juxtaposes a conversation between the head of the World State, Margaret Mond (played by Sophie Ward) and the director of the embryo lab, Thomas (played by James Howard), against embryo factory workers preparing for a night out. The freeze frames between the conversations express forced joy. Happiness is compulsory and group sex encouraged as a way of fostering that, but love-making no longer exists. Love no longer exists. Complex emotions and family ties have disappeared, in favour of automatons who create and consume, while smiling gleefully. Blissful ignorance is preferred to truth. And, everyone takes 'soma' – a hallucinogenic drug – to get them through all the obligations to be 'happy' with the lives they are living, whatever their caste. The first act carefully enacts these significant aspects of the novel. And, yet, it's difficult to feel empathy or connection with any of the characters. Character development seems to come second to story development.
Technically, the show has some brilliant moments. Through movement, lighting, and pounding beats (composed by These New Puritans), this stage production of Brave New World creatively depicts scenes of group sex designed to illustrate the commodification of human sexuality. It successfully navigates from embryo laboratories, to flying coptors and nightmarish nightclubs in creative set changes. Projections add depth by focusing in on the despair of specific characters, specifically Lenina (the main love interest, played by Abigail McKern), and Thomas. McKern's performance is particularly notable as she painfully develops from a World State success story - promiscuous, carefree but soma-dependent - to uncertain and questioning.
At times, however, the attempts to remain faithful to the novel give the sense that you're at a reading of the book rather than a stage adaptation capable of standing on its own. In the character of John the Savage (played by William Postlethwaite), who descends on the World State after having been found on a native reservation, the adaptation also misses an opportunity to develop a nuanced character and instead inherits the noble savage trope. While intellectually fascinating in its ability to convey so many of the key themes of the novel, this stage adaptation can be a little creativily tiring at times.