Coventry-based company Theatre Absolute is to commission nine new pieces which will be inspired by the work of American novelist Henry David Thoreau.
Are We Where We Are? is a two-year project which will use a variety of forms including text, new technologies and physicality. There will be six short-form theatre pieces written and performed by writers as well as a monologue, duologue and an ensemble production.
Thoreau took himself away from the industrialising world of urban America to meditate on the consumerist and materialist obsessions of western society.
In his book Walden: A Life in the Woods which was published in 1854, he writes “we are not where we are, but in a false position”.
The first piece is May Utang, written and performed by Jules Orcullo. It will be staged at the Shop Front Theatre, City Arcade, Coventry on Thursday 11 May.