Blindness - Donmar Warehouse (UK)
Australian Premiere and Exclusive - Adelaide Festival 2022: Supported by the UK/Australia Season Patrons Board, The British Council and the Australian Government as part of the UK/Australia Season
As the lights change at a junction in a big city, a car remains motionless, its driver unable to go on. Suddenly, without warning or cause, he has lost his sight. It soon becomes clear that this is a blindness like no other, infecting all who come into proximity with it. Within days, it has spread throughout the city. The government tries to arrest the contagion by herding the newly blind into a disused asylum. But its attempts are futile. The city is in panic.
Based on Nobel Prize-winner José Saramago’s dystopian novel Blindness, Juliet Stevenson’s gripping narration unfolds around you through immersive binaural sound and lighting as the rise and, ultimately, profoundly hopeful end of an unimaginable global pandemic plays out.
Donmar Warehouse’s acclaimed production, adapted by award-winning playwright Simon Stephens, directed by Walter Meierjohann with sound design by Ben and Max Ringham, is brought to Adelaide Festival by Arts Projects Australia after hugely successful seasons in New York, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Auckland and London.
With the voice of Juliet Stevenson
Based on the novel by José Saramago
Adapted by Simon Stephens
Directed by Walter Meierjohann
Sound Designers Ben and Max Ringham
Designer Lizzie Clachan
Lighting Designer Jessica Hung Han Yun
Production Consultant Professor Hannah Thompson
Resident Assistant Director Sara Aniqah Malik
Photos by Helen Maybanks
Supported by the UK/Australia Season Patrons Board, The British Council and the Australian Government as part of the UK/Australia Season
Blindness: Podcast 2 reclaiming Blindness
This special edition of the Donmar Warehouse podcast was recorded in August 2020 to accompany the socially distanced sound installation BLINDNESS.
In this episode, writer Simon Stephens interviews Production Consultant Professor Hannah Thompson to unpack the representations of blindness in BLINDNESS - both José Saramago’s dystopian novel and this adaptation. They take the long view across centuries of literature whilst discussing the exciting possibilities for creatively centring the non-visual in theatre today.