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Children under 4 will not be admitted.
Performance Dates
1 February 2018 - 10 February 2018
Run time: 4hr 5min (including interval)
Includes interval
5 reviews
The Divide, a new play by Alan Ayckbourn, opening in February 2018 at The Old Vic.
The play is presented in two parts, is a tale that unflinchingly explores a dystopian society of repression, insurrection and forbidden love.
The Divide is set in the aftermath of a deadly contagion which, a century from now, has decimated the English population and rendered contact between men and women fatal. Under the dictates of an elusive Preacher, an unthinkable solution is enforced. Separated by the Divide, the adult survivors are segregated by gender, as men wear white as a mark of their purity, and women – still infected – are clothed in black as a sign of their sin.
Brother and sister Elihu (Jake Davies) and Soween (Erin Doherty) grow up learning the ways of their tightly controlled society. As they begin to glimpse the cracks in the system, Elihu falls for Giella (Weruche Opia), the daughter of two radical mothers, risking fatal disease and threatening to ignite a bloody revolution.
Directed by Annabel Bolton, an Associate Director of The Old Vic. The Divide receives its premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival in a co-production with The Old Vic and Karl Sydow.

Selon la légende, il y a eu une version de six heures de The Divide, l’entrée tardive d’Alan Ayckbourn, à 78 ans, dans le genre dystopique Young Adult. Certains participants au Festival d’Édimbourg ont même affirmé l’avoir vu. En regardant cette production révisée, à peine trois heures quarante-cinq minutes en moins, il est difficile d’imaginer les extensions.
9 Feb, 2018 | By Ed Whitfield