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Ed Harris’s play, adapted from Karel Čapek’s 1936 novel, a dark satire about the destruction of mankind at the hands of a new species of newt, is set in the present day and follows MP Lili Clay and her family. The newts can use basic tools and language and so a new labour-saving workforce is born. Newtmania sweeps the planet but with new opportunities, old conflicts arise, left and right squabble, and companies turn this global disaster into profit.

Told through promotional videos and news reports this timely dystopian farce about the economy, ecocide, and extinction, tracks how an apparent utopia grows around us until the newts outsmart us at our own game.

Narrator…. Doña Croll
Lili Clay ….. Laura Elphinstone
Mum ….. Liza Sadovy
Leon Clay ….. Joseph Ayre
Graham Knox ….. Jude Akuwudike
Barney ….. Oliver Westlake
Oscar/ Hugo Latymer ….. Tom Edward-Kane

Original song by Vern Asbury
Sound design by Alisdair MacGregor
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer
Executive Producer Joby Waldman

A Reduced Listening Production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3

Karel Čapek (1890 – 1938) was one of the most important Czech writers of the twentieth century. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel War with the Newts and play R.U.R., which introduced the word robot. He also wrote many politically charged works dealing with the social turmoil of his time.

Ed Harris is an award-winning dramatist and comedy writer. He has had over 20 audio plays broadcast on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3 and 4, as well as three series of his popular wartime sitcom, DOT. His work has won numerous awards including two Writers’ Guild Awards, a Â鶹ԼÅÄ Audio Drama Award and a Sony Gold/Radio Academy Award. His stage plays include STRANGERS LIKE ME (National Theatre Connections), MONGREL ISLAND (Soho Theatre), NEVER EVER AFTER (shortlisted for the Meyer-Whitworth Award) and WHAT THE THUNDER SAID (Theatre Centre). This year, Ed was Lead Writer on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4’s Franz Kafka Season, with adaptations of THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED and THE TRIAL. His Kafka biopic FRANZ & FELICE won the prestigious Prix Europa Award 2024. He is a Royal Literary Fellow, and the Writer-in-Residence for the Oxford Kafka 2024 programme at Oxford University.