Eve Future
A dance and music theatre alternative adaptation
of the book by Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam.
by
Bertram Dhellemmes
Margret Sara Gudjonsdottir
Esther Mugambi
L'Eve Future is a remarkable novel written in 1886 by the visionary and dandy author Auguste Villiers de l'Isle Adam. An improbable and genius meeting of decadent French romantic literature and early science-fiction, this book issued the modern myth of the artificial woman – at first the slave ofpatriarchal desire but eventually the freeing figure underlying cyberfeminism.
This 'andréide' – Hadaly – is built by an idealised Thomas Edison as a perfect lover for his friend Lord Ewald, replacing his beautiful yet shallow girlfriend. The book is awfully misogynist, not only in the idea of building a perfect woman – perfect because obedient –,but all the female characters being vile, mediocre, manipulating, only to be replaced by machines.
This adaptation of L'Eve Future for stage is based on adopting the point of view of the female protagonists of Villiers de l'Isle Adam's book to rewrite the alternative story of this creating a new woman, eventually on an agenda uncontrolled by men.
This 'andréide' – Hadaly – is built by an idealised Thomas Edison as a perfect lover for his friend Lord Ewald, replacing his beautiful yet shallow girlfriend. The book is awfully misogynist, not only in the idea of building a perfect woman – perfect because obedient –,but all the female characters being vile, mediocre, manipulating, only to be replaced by machines.
This adaptation of L'Eve Future for stage is based on adopting the point of view of the female protagonists of Villiers de l'Isle Adam's book to rewrite the alternative story of this creating a new woman, eventually on an agenda uncontrolled by men.