Brave New World

Some of the most serious dilemmas facing the world, including genetic engineering, globalisation and the powerlessness of individuals against an all-powerful establishment, were foreseen in Aldous Huxley‘s famous novel. Now, in this stage adaptation, a new generation brings Huxley’s dramatic and prophetic vision into the 21st century.

Writer-director Jonathan Holloway emphasises Huxley’s vision of a future intensely remodelled by consumerism to the point where all babies are conceived outside the human body; intelligence is determined during foetal development; sexual mores have been reversed and humanity is suspended in an eternal adolescent fug that substitutes premature death for a graceful passage into old age. With Oxford’s brand new Westgate Shopping Centre as a setting worthy of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, and with the aid of audio surveillance technology, the audience will be drawn into a world of fear and schemes operating against a backdrop of neo-pharaonic concrete splendour.

This event takes place at Westgate, Oxford OX1 1TR