Time to vote!

Until April 17th, the ball is in your court.

 

For the 12th time, we open voting to choose, together, the work to be translated and read in the Collaborative Translation Project and the Reading Theatre with Science, respectively. This time, all the works reflect on the same theme – The Theory of Evolution.

 

As those who follow us already know, the winning work will be announced after the voting and, afterwards, we will start recruiting volunteer translators. Those interested can sign up through this e-mail: ler@marioneteatro.com.

 

Here is the link for voting. We also leave a brief synopsis of each work that is “in competition”.

 

• Evolution, by Jonathan Marc Sherman

As Henry struggles to bring his thesis on Charles Darwin to life, a simple question perplexes him: What do you want? Making use of elements of Brechtian epic theatre and steeped in razor-sharp social commentary, “Evolution” follows Henry on a trip to Los Angeles with his girlfriend, Hope. When his unusual illiteracy in pop culture becomes the driving force behind an unexpected career in the entertainment industry, Henry must choose between success in celebrity culture or academic obscurity, between embracing ambition or losing hope (Hope).

 

• Tooth and Claw, by Michael Hollinger

Reptile expert Schuyler Baines – “the saviour of the Giant Tortoises” and the first female director of the Charles Darwin Research Station – arrives in the Galapagos full of ideas and idealism. But when she becomes aware of a growing black market that threatens to destroy the islands’ fragile ecosystem, Schuyler shuts down the industry, triggering a lethal conflict for “survival-of-the-fittest” with the native fishermen. A bold theatrical exploration of evolution, extinction and the ever-present nature of Darwin’s ‘struggle for survival’.

 

• Trumpery, by Peter Parnell

It is 1858. Charles Darwin is struggling to get “The Evolution of Species” finished and give the world his theory of Natural Selection, while dealing with an illness in the family and his impending loss of faith. Meanwhile, half a world away, Alfred Russel Wallace, a brilliant but unknown explorer and utopian socialist, came up with exactly the same theory. The only person he sends his manuscript to is Charles Darwin. Can Darwin claim priority? And what will happen if he can’t finish his book in time? Vibrantly comic and deeply moving, “Trumpery” examines what it means to live in a Darwinian universe from the point of view of the men who discovered the idea.

 

• Kafka’s Monkey, by Colin Teevan

Trapped in a cage and desperate to escape, Red Peter, formerly a chimpanzee, reveals his climb through the ranks of the animals until he becomes a stage man capable of walking, talking, spitting, smoking and drinking too much. Based on the short story “A Report to the Academy” by Franz Kafka.

 

• After Darwin, by Timberlake Wertenbaker

The scene is set: it’s 1831 and naturalist Charles Darwin is invited to travel with Robert FitzRoy through unexplored waters off South America aboard The Beagle. So far, all very factual. But Millie, Ian and Tom, take control of the 1998 stage version of events that include discovering differences inside and outside their own lives. The exploration of the philosophical tensions of the 19th century, the clash between the staunch solidity of FitzRoy’s Christian ideals and Darwin’s nascent radical vision provokes unexpected emotions in the director and contemporary actors. How is it possible to look back and search for inner meaning when belief has been replaced by emptiness? What place does personal commitment have in a random world? Timberlake Wertenbaker’s absorbing piece analyzes emotions and beliefs and looks at how we relate to each other in an evolutionarily conditioned society.