Discover how Alan Turing broke the code in new stage production
A new production telling the remarkable true story of Alan Turing takes to the stage in Northampton in September.
Breaking the Code follows Turing’s career as a visionary mathematician and codebreaker and examines how society’s attitude towards his sexuality changed the course of his life. Arguably one of the most important and inquisitive minds of the 20th century, Turing is famed for cracking the Enigma code at Bletchley Park, a key moment in the Allies’ victory in the Second World War.
The role of Alan Turing will be played by Mark Edel-Hunt (whose credits include the acclaimed Leopoldstadt in the West End). The cast also includes Niall Costigan (The Railway Children, Hull Truck Theatre) as Mick Ross, Joseph Edwards (The Red Shoes, Royal Shakespeare Company) as Christopher Morcom & Sixth-Former, Peter Hamilton Dyer (The Promise, Chichester Festival Theatre) as Dillwyn Knox, Carla Harrison-Hodge (Cyrano de Bergerac, Jamie Lloyd Company) as Pat Green, Susie Trayling (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, West End) as Sara Turing/Smith and Joe Usher (Falkland Sound, RSC) as Ron Miller & Nikos.
The production is directed by Jesse Jones (Education, Education, Education at the Royal & Derngate) with set and costume design by Jonathan Fensom (The Two Popes, Royal & Derngate). Johanna Town (The Comedy About Spies, Mischief/West End) is the lighting designer and Robin Colyer (The King’s Speech, Watermill Theatre) is sound designer and composer. They are joined by Gerrard Martin as movement director, Hannah Miller as casting director and Gemma Boaden as voice and dialect coach.
Hugh Whitemore’s acclaimed play, first performed in 1986, will feature new material about Turing’s lasting legacy for modern Britain and the development of ‘Turing’s law’, which granted posthumous pardons to gay and bisexual men convicted under historical anti-homosexuality laws. It will also feature a new epilogue that takes into consideration Turing’s royal pardon in 2013.
Breaking the Code runs at the Royal & Derngate from Thursday September 11 to Saturday September 27. Visit royalandderngate.co.uk or call 01604 624811 to book.