Set in the summer of 2016, when the Brexit referendum had made the division between people starker, this adaptation of Ali Smith’s Booker Prize shortlisted state-of-the-nation novel is a story of connections across time and experience. Told through the eyes of two unlikely friends – a woman in her 30s and a 101-year-old man – Autumn is a playful and poignant exploration of the stories and experiences that shape us in youth and how these echo down the years.
Amidst fresh cuts at her university, low-paid art historian Elisabeth has returned to her childhood home – where fences are going up, libraries are closing, and half of the village isn’t speaking to the other half. Meanwhile, her elderly former next-door neighbour and childhood best friend Daniel won’t wake up, and instead dreams – of his long-lost little sister, of Christine Keeler, of art, poetry and music. Moving between 2016 and across the twentieth century, in conversation with other artists such as Dickens, Keats, Shakespeare, and British female pop-artist Pauline Boty, Autumn finds resilience in the most unlikely of love stories.
Charlotte Vickers and Harry McDonald said: “We’re so excited that Ali Smith has trusted us to bring her incredible novel to the stage, which when it was published captured so well both the specific anxieties of 2016’s political moment, and the age-old questions of what the role of art is in a time of political strife. In the years since the referendum, it feels like despite all the political upheaval and number of prime ministers we’ve cycled through, as a society we still need a proper opportunity to reflect on what the referendum means, and we’re looking forward to exploring 2016 through the lens of the here and now in 2024. “
Seasonal Productions was founded by director Charlotte Vickers and will be a platform for new queer, political work, exploring the worlds people live in and the worlds they might create. Writer and adapter Harry McDonald was recently nominated for a Stage Debut award for Foam, which premiered at the Finborough Theatre in April 2024.
Ali Smith was born in Inverness, Scotland and lives in Cambridge. She is the author of several novels and short story collections including, The Accidental, Hotel World, How to Be Both and the Seasonal Quartet. She has been four times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, has won the Goldsmiths Prize, Orwell Prize, Costa Best Novel Award, The Austrian State Prize for European Literature, the Bodley Medal, and the Women’s Prize. Her novel Autumn was one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2017, and this year the same newspaper selected her novel How to be Both as one of the 100 Best Books of the 21st century.
Autumn is at Park Theatre 16 October – 2 November
