After Darwin

by Timberlake Wertenbaker

The scene is it's 1831 and the naturalist Charles Darwin is invited to travel with Robert FitzRoy into unchartered waters off the coast of South America aboard The Beagle. So far, so factual. But for Millie, Ian and Tom, getting to grips with a 1998 stage version of events includes uncovering the polarities both in and between their own lives. The exploration of nineteenth-century philosophical tensions, with the staunch solidity of FitzRoy's Christian ideals sparing with Darwin's slowly dawning radical vision, provokes unsuspected emotions in the present-day director and actors.
How is it possible to look back and reach within oneself for meaning when belief has been replaced by a void? What place has personal commitment in a haphazard world?
Timberlake Wertenbaker's absorbing new play slides a scalpel beneath the surface of emotions and beliefs and looks at how we live with one another in a society conditioned by evolution.

Genres: Plays

73 pages, Paperback

First published January 29, 2015

Reviews

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was torn between giving this 3 stars and 4, but I opted for the higher star value. There were sections of this play I really liked, but then there were other sections where I was confused about the characters' motives and what they meant by some of their comments.
What I liked about this play is the really effective blending of modern actors and their characters--the line between the actors and the play is permeable, as the meaning of the play-within-the-play shifts based on how the actors', director's, and writer's goals, ideas, and intentions change.

[Brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

i just have one question
1) What the f*ck