By Keith Reddin
FREE READING Monday, February 15th @ 7 pm

Directed by Alexandra Harbold

Company: Alexis Baigue, Daniel Beecher, Michael Behrens, Daisy Blake, Holly Fowers, Mark Gollaher, Jayne Luke, Tracie Merrill, Nick O'Donnell, Josh Thoemke

Reviews & Coverage

In Utah This Week - Theatre Review 'Prophets of Nature' by Keith Reddin

Playbill.com - Reddin's Prophets of Nature Will Get Reading by Salt Lake Acting Company

SLC Theatre Examiner - Salt Lake Acting Company to offer free reading of Prophets of Nature

SLC Theatre Examiner - The more you know: The Luddites and SLAC's Prophets of Nature

Playwright's Note

"I started writing the play in response to people always calling me a Luddite, not knowing, like most people, the origin of that term. I do not now nor ever have owned a cell phone or BlackBerry. I tell people it's to keep myself free from constantly being reached by people, but must admit there is perhaps a fear of technology altering my universe. Looking up the history of the Luddites, I found it was based more than just fear of technology changing, it had a very real personal effect, the loss of jobs and the start of the Industrial Revolution in England and thus in Western Civilization. The Revolution started in the Midlands and the North, and those factories created social changes, good and bad. Dickens in HARD TIMES writes about how the factories can destroy families as well as create wealth.

Anyway, the more I read and researched, the more I was struck that the Luddites were considered early Terrorists. They used the tactics of modern day terrorists, creating fear and often using violence to fight back. The government suspended many laws and rounded up suspects to fight the fear of the Terrorists. The more you learn about the Luddites the more parallels one finds to today's situation. Very eerie and very exciting. And perhaps because I too fear and distrust much of the technological revolution I found myself relating to, even sympathetic to the Luddites. But they were terorists, who destroyed property and killed people. How could I sympathize with murderers? And yet I was torn. That made me re-examine the terrorists today. As Byron actually said to Parliament, to ignore them or dismiss them is just as dangerous. In order to fight them we must understand the cause for their hate and revenge. That is not to say we can condone their violence, I don't. But we must know them, like the Luddites, to keep our safety and our freedom. To merely fight fear with fear will never completely work. Lots to think about and that's why I think the subject of the Luddite rebellion is so rich and compelling. Maybe it will make a compelling, provocative play."

~ Playwright Keith Reddin

KEITH REDDIN (Playwright) Plays include: LIFE AND LIMB, RUM AND COKE, BIG TIME, NEBRASKA, LIFE DURING WARTIME, BRUTALITY OF FACT, ALMOST BLUE, ALL THE RAGE, FRAME 312, BUT NOT FOR ME, HUMAN ERROR, and THE MISSIONARY POSITION. Adaptations include: BLACK SNOW, THE IMAGINARY INVALID, HEAVEN'S MY DESTINATION, and THE LEES OF HAPPINESS by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Screenplays include: ALL THE RAGE and the cable features THE HEART OF JUSTICE, MILKEN, and BAD GUYS (TNT). His plays have been produced at NY Public Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, The Atlantic Theater, NYTW, The Goodman Theatre, LaJolla Playhouse, Yale Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Woolly Mammoth Theatre and The Donmar Warehouse in London.

 

Above Right: Engraving of a rioting mob of Luddites, British workers who were opposed to increasing mechanization of jobs, as depicted by 19th Cent. illustrator Phiz (aka Hablot Knight Browne)