You’ve done a lot of adaptations of classic novels, why War of the Worlds and why now?

Yes, our War of the Worlds is one of a line of adaptations starting with A Farewell to Arms in 2014.  Since then, we have staged versions of Heart of Darkness (2018), Night of the Living Dead (2020), Dracula (2021), Macbeth (2023), Frankenstein (2024).  That list is interesting because there’s a lot of horror and gothic fiction involved and I suppose we have always been drawn to those stories, from when we started as a company in the late 1990s. Monsters, ghosts, journey narratives, we have been finding ways to stage this kind of material for years and I suppose we still really like stories with terror and threat. War of the Worlds has been on our radar for a while now. It’s a great novel, with a central narrative that is ripe for adaptation. You can see this in the multiple versions that already exist - you know, from the Orson Wells radio version in the 1930s to Spielberg’s film in 2005. We always held back in the past, but the novel was always in our list - maybe because there’s always the problem of how you do the Martians on stage. But last year we kept coming back to the novel as a piece of writing that satirised the invasion literature of the nineteenth century. Finding parallels between those anxieties and the kind of societal anxieties that seem so current today. We also felt we had the techniques now to do a staging justice. 

Can you say a little bit more about these anxieties?

Well, the fear of invasion. When Wells was writing it was the fear of German invasion. He tapped into this anxiety and transferred it to a Martian invasion. He was also moved by colonial genocide as well, particularly what happened in Tasmania. Today our societal fear is not about Germany or even Russia, it seems more generally focused on migration. Even Trump articulated recently when he talked about the end of European civilisation - what did he call it? “Civilisation erasure”. That’s what War of the Worlds is about - the complete destruction of everything human by Martians, who we humans are unable to resist in any meaningful way. Complete erasure. So, we take this double set of anxieties and entwine them together. The story in the novel and one we introduce - the story of a man who falls into the world of the novel because he is drawn to the narratives that peddle the idea that our civilisation is being eroded by migration, by an invasion of outsiders. 

So, is it set in 2025?

We’ve set in 1969 - the year of Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech. Our hero, if we can call him that, goes to a rally supporting Powell and is injured in some accident that takes place there. He wakes up in hospital and the world has been invaded by Martians. He makes the journey to the south coast and tries to escape to France where he is told it is safer.  On the journey he encounters other people, re-unites with his wife, does questionable things. It’s on this journey that he learns about the nature of his values, how far he is prepared to go to survive. It’s got horror and threat and follows the structure of the original novel. It’s a rollercoaster ride which I think audiences are going to really enjoy. And we hope they get the politics of the adaptation at the same time.

You have the Martians?

Yes, we have the Martians. The classic tripods roaming across the English landscape in the home counties. And we get to see them up close as well in a particularly terrifying scene. But I don’t want to give too much away. But of course, as with all these kinds of stories, the real monsters are us, what we do, as humans, to survive. We track many of the pivotal scenes from the novel, but they are all slightly reset in this 1960s perspective.

You are known for your innovative staging.  Do you bring new techniques to this adaptation?

We are making a movie on stage - that’s the task here. The script is very cinematic, and we probably haven’t attempted anything like this before. We have four performers who act out all the characters and do all the filming. It’s a challenge and this gives a wonderful energy to the staging. People playing multiple roles, hitting their marks, changing costumes, using props so that every shot counts. We use a modern version of an old Victorian theatre trick called the Pepper’s Ghost, which is a wonderful new approach for us. We use models of buildings and cars and amazing projection as well to create an extraordinary world that is being destroyed by the Martian invasion. It’s exciting in the rehearsals at the moment, seeing the show bloom into life. I think this is one of our most ambitious shows to date. We are honing all our staging techniques and bringing new ones into play as well. It all looks and sound beautiful. I can’t wait to see what audiences make of it.

What kind of experience are audiences going to expect?

Like the novel, the show throws you into a world in complete turmoil. The story is faced paced, exciting, even terrifying in places. I have always been drawn to those stories that show people under severe pressure - and this is one of those. So, it has what might expect - aliens, tripods, death rays, people on the edge of insanity, armies being torn apart, a desperate attempt to flee devastation. All told in the highly visual and visceral style we are known for as a company.  At the same time, we are keen for this work to be about something we care deeply about. In this sense, this version is a kind of history play, a staging that articulates the consequences of prejudice, of the fear of the unknown, that the outsider might not only be our friend but the very person that might provide salvation. I’d like to hope our version of War of the Worlds acts as both a fantastical entertainment and also a warning. Maybe the erasure of civilisation is not so much a consequence of the migrant but how we treat those that we consider as outsiders.

War of the Worlds shows at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre from Wednesday 18 to Saturday 21 March.