Acknowledgement of Country

Overview

Australian Premiere

Donmar Warehouse / With the voice of Juliet Stevenson / Based on a novel by José Saramago / Adapted by Simon Stephens / Directed by Walter Meierjohann.

As the lights change at a junction in a big city, a car remains motionless, its driver unable to go on. Suddenly, without warning or cause, he has lost his sight. It soon becomes clear that this is a blindness like no other, infecting all who come into proximity with it. Within days, it has spread throughout the city. The government tries to arrest the contagion by herding the newly blind into a disused asylum. But its attempts are futile. The city is in panic.

Based on Nobel Prize-winner José Saramago’s dystopian novel Blindness, Juliet Stevenson’s gripping narration unfolds around you through immersive binaural sound and lighting as the rise and, ultimately, profoundly hopeful end of an unimaginable global pandemic plays out.

Donmar Warehouse’s acclaimed production, adapted by award-winning playwright Simon Stephens, directed by Walter Meierjohann with sound design by Ben and Max Ringham, is brought to Adelaide Festival by Arts Projects Australia after hugely successful seasons in New York, Hong Kong, Mexico City and London.