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- Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
- Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
In 1949, scientist and mathematician Dr Jacob Bronowski installs a hidden, locked room in his house. Fifty years later, his grandson discovers the secrets contained in the room, unearthing echoes from across six million years of human history. David Byrne's play Secret Life of Humans was first seen during a sell-out, award-winning run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017. It had its London premiere at New Diorama in April 2018, ahead of transferring Off-Broadway. 'Ambitious, intellegent and moving... unfolds with thriller-like precision with real visual flair.' - Guardian 'Bold, beautiful and utterly absorbing theatre, finding the thrilling drama inherent in the human story. It takes your breath away.' - The Stage 'Presented with brilliant imagination... strikingly accomplished, absorbing and enjoyable.' - Scotsman
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David Byrne
SECRET LIFEOF HUMANS
NICK HERN BOOKS
London
www.nickhernbooks.co.uk
Contents
Introduction
Original Production
Dedication
Secret Life of Humans
About the Author
Copyright and Performing Rights Information
Introduction
David Byrne
In a world where major political, economic and ideological divides seem to split whole populations, you can find great optimism in delving back into what shaped and formed us as a species.
Where did we all come from?
What shared history still lives in each of us, just below the surface?
And what, in our ever-present past, can we use to help with our concerns and challenges today?
This play spans several different time periods: Ava and Jamie’s lasts a single night, Bruno’s story across one lifetime, and the history of humanity across millions of years. Putting them together, we want them to resonate, to give a new perspective on where we’ve come from, where we are now and where we’re going.
Finding Jacob ‘Bruno’ Bronowski was the key to the development process of this play.
We knew we needed to find a character who had lived through the key events of the twentieth century and who had a connection with our shared history, while always looking forward.
The core of his story in this play is true. Bruno’s daughter, Lisa Jardine, made the documentary My Father, the Bomb and Me, documenting her own discoveries in her father’s locked and alarmed room. In Secret Life of Humans, we’ve imagined the discovery skipped a generation, and the revelations are made over the course of a single night.
It’s no surprise then that one of the major inspirations that can be traced through the play is Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man, both the BBC television series and the accompanying book – without which no coffee table in the seventies and eighties was complete. The second inspiration is Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, whose grand sweeping narrative warns us that humanity may have veered off-track long ago and that, as a species, we may be heading for disaster.
Whatever their difference, the similar theories in both books on what makes us human convinced us these ideas could live on stage: our ability to communicate together in large groups, our vivid shared imaginations and our capacity to invest in stories and myths.
Everything that makes us human exists in theatre.
And, instead of reading alone about the complex, incredible creatures we are, how much more powerful to come together and sit, side by side, with our fellow humans to look again at ourselves and rediscover ourselves anew.
Throughout the play, there are two major debates that fight it out: ‘What does it mean to be human?’ And, ‘Where are we heading?’ Both arguments are strong and compelling, the stakes could not be higher.
For anyone wanting to stage this play in the future, I leave it to you to decide which voice ultimately wins out. I imagine it’ll largely be down to the climate at the time, and as to whether audiences are willing to embrace optimism and uncertainty over a more nihilist view of the world.
When staging the original production, we worked to keep audiences aware of echoes of our distant past throughout the story. This was achieved through small moments in the performances and through a beautifully complex sound design, consisting of human voices to keep one of our feet with our ancient ancestors.
Also, as a company, we worked to give the show a fluid style, with no breaks, scene changes or blackouts – one scene melting and transforming into the next, and, once we arrive, never to leave the Bronowski house.
After all, as Bruno said in The Ascent of Man, ‘a house, a home, is the best place to study our biological uniqueness’.
London, 2018
Secret Life of Humans was first performed at the Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh, as part of the 2017 Edinburgh Festival Fringe (previews at New Diorama Theatre, London). The production returned to New Diorama on 10 April 2018, ahead of a transfer to 59E59 Theaters, Off-Broadway, on 31 May 2018. The cast, in order of appearance, was as follows:
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
