full-length play produced in 2009 at the Bryant-Lake Bowl
based on the 1886 novel* (without the subtitle) by H. Rider Haggard
review in Twin Cities Daily Planet
“Because it eschews the lure of outrageous set design and prop-heaviness that a story like this is bound to inspire, the production instead makes a pact with the audience which fully engages their imagination.”
As the genres of fantasy and science fiction gained momentum in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, an important subgenre emerged: the so-called “lost world” story, in which European or American adventurers discover hitherto-unknown civilizations. Examples include Edgar Rice Burroughs’s A Princess of Mars (brought to the stage for the first time by Hardcover Theater in 2005), Jules Verne’s A Journey to the Center of the Earth, H.G. Wells’s The Country of the Blind, and of course Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World.
By far the best of these tales is H. Rider Haggard’s 1887 novel, She, and now Hardcover brings it to the stage for the first time. In this amazing story, three Englishmen travel to Africa, where they encounter a strange culture ruled by an irresistible woman with supernatural powers. Can she really be more than 2000 years old? Hardcover’s adaptation of this classic is loaded with action, suspense, comedy, and (dare we say it?) philosophy – like an Indiana Jones movie onstage, but with interesting characters and provocative themes.
cast: 5M, 2F (representing a cast of thousands)
* never before, to the best of our knowledge, adapted for the theater
