��ѿ��ý

Available for over a year

Ed Harris’s play, adapted from Karel Čapek’s 1936 novel, a dark satire about the destruction of mankind at the hands of a new species of newt, is set in the present day and follows MP Lili Clay and her family. The newts can use basic tools and language and so a new labour-saving workforce is born. Newtmania sweeps the planet but with new opportunities, old conflicts arise, left and right squabble, and companies turn this global disaster into profit. Told through promotional videos and news reports this timely dystopian farce about the economy, ecocide, and extinction, tracks how an apparent utopia grows around us until the newts outsmart us at our own game. Narrator…. Doña Croll Lili Clay ….. Laura Elphinstone Mum ….. Liza Sadovy Leon Clay ….. Joseph Ayre Graham Knox ….. Jude Akuwudike Barney ….. Oliver Westlake Oscar/ Hugo Latymer ….. Tom Edward-Kane Original song by Vern Asbury Sound design by Alisdair MacGregor Directed by Jeremy Mortimer Executive Producer Joby Waldman A Reduced Listening Production for ��ѿ��ý Radio 3 Karel Čapek (1890 – 1938) was one of the most important Czech writers of the twentieth century. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel War with the Newts and play R.U.R., which introduced the word robot. He also wrote many politically charged works dealing with the social turmoil of his time. Ed Harris is an award-winning dramatist and comedy writer. He has had over 20 audio plays broadcast on ��ѿ��ý Radio 3 and 4, as well as three series of his popular wartime sitcom, DOT. His work has won numerous awards including two Writers’ Guild Awards, a ��ѿ��ý Audio Drama Award and a Sony Gold/Radio Academy Award. His stage plays include STRANGERS LIKE ME (National Theatre Connections), MONGREL ISLAND (Soho Theatre), NEVER EVER AFTER (shortlisted for the Meyer-Whitworth Award) and WHAT THE THUNDER SAID (Theatre Centre). This year, Ed was Lead Writer on ��ѿ��ý Radio 4’s Franz Kafka Season, with adaptations of THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED and THE TRIAL. His Kafka biopic FRANZ & FELICE won the prestigious Prix Europa Award 2024. He is a Royal Literary Fellow, and the Writer-in-Residence for the Oxford Kafka 2024 programme at Oxford University.