Some exciting news. We are delighted to announce that our stage adaptation of George Orwell’s Burmese Days will open in New York this November as part of the prestigious Brits Off Broadway festival.
In 2009, the George Orwell Estate read Ryan Kiggell’s stage adaptation of Burmese Days, and subsequently gave him the go ahead to develop the production. Later that year Orwell’s son, Richard Blair, attended a specially staged reading of the play and gave the production his blessing. The coming production at 59e59 Theaters in November is therefore the world premiere of the first stage adaptation of Orwell’s extraordinary novel.
Burmese Days was inspired by Orwell’s experiences while serving for the British Raj. Although a work of fiction, several British publishers refused the manuscript of Burmese Days, a sharp critique of Empire, fearing libel from officials working in Burma at the time. The script was picked up instead by Harpers New York, and so George Orwell’s first novel was published in the US in 1934.
Burma today is suffering under exactly the kind of paranoid and aggressive regime that Orwell dedicated his life to confronting. In a chillingly prescient observation in Burmese Days, the central character laments “Sometimes I think that in two hundred years all this will be gone; forests, villages, monasteries all vanished”. With the disappearance of monks, ethnic cleansing and rampant deforestation in latter day Burma, Orwell’s observation is halfway to being right.
To support this production please visit our Wefund campaign site – where you can also see clips of our 2009 staged reading. Do also forward the link onto your friends and colleagues that you think may be interested
With an exceptional cast and creative team in place, we will be starting rehearsals next week. Do please check back in the coming weeks for further updates on our adventures …
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