Tony and Olivier Award winning producers Glass Half Full Productions (POTUS, Betrayal) and Aaron Glick (Kimberly Akimbo, What the Constitution Means to Me) have announced that a new, Broadway-bound stage adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s seminal novel FAHRENHEIT 451 is in development with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok (Cost of Living, Sanctuary City). For more information, or to sign up to receive news on the world premiere production, visit FahrenheitLive.com.
Bradbury’s hauntingly prophetic classic is set in a not-too-distant future, where a fireman’s role is not to put out fires, but to start them. Books are forbidden and burned, and those who defy the rules to preserve them – and the dangerous ideas they contain – are tracked down and punished. With uncanny insight into the potential of technology, over seventy years from its first publication, Bradbury's powerful and poetic prose still has the power to dazzle and shock. The novel’s enduring popularity over seven decades has led to over 12 million copies sold worldwide. It has been translated into more than 58 languages – and has had a continuous place on school curriculums for many generations. Since it was first published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 has served as inspiration for countless artists across many genres and mediums.
Majok said, "The relevancy of mind domination and the end of the world in our current age needs no words; what struck me most in Fahrenheit 451 was its lens on our loneliness. How our yearning for connection and fear of its absence can be feasted upon. How we long to devote ourselves to something true and lasting in a fracturing society. And the ways we blow up our lives to unearth the truth we've buried – which will shatter us into our most honest selves. As Bradbury writes, 'We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in awhile.'"
“It is a privilege and thrill to bring this seminal novel to the stage, with one of our most visceral and acclaimed living writers,” said the producers in a statement. “Mr. Bradbury’s and Ms. Majok’s works both stem from the deeply human and personal, and we’re excited by the significance of this collaboration.”
The Bradbury Estate commented that, “We are delighted to bring Fahrenheit 451 to a new audience, with the impact and intimacy that only theater can offer, to be working with producers who care so deeply for the work and with Martyna Majok, a truly great dramatist of enormous intelligence, sensitivity and skill.”