Is life on Earth doomed?

Beginning October 19, Steppenwolf for Young Adults is presenting Animal Farm as a radio play (a first for the program) as part of the 2020/21 season, adapted by Steve Pickering for radio from Althos Low‘s original stage adaptation and directed by Lili-Anne Brown. And on October 13, Northlight Theatre is taking part in a nationwide, simultaneous broadcast of Berkeley Rep’s radio play adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s novel It Can’t Happen Here.

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an allegory about revolutionizing in the face of unchecked, consolidated power. When Steppenwolf for Young Adults produced Animal Farm as a stage production in 2014, the accompanying educational programming for students centered around the idea of historical revolution, challenging them to think about important uprisings they’d potentially heard about or learned about in school. But now, the idea of revolution is much more immediate. 

Berkeley Rep first performed It Can’t Happen Here in 2016. The last performance of the show—adapted from Sinclair Lewis’s novel about an idiot elected to be America’s president amidst the rise of European fascism—was one week before the election in which Donald Trump became president. Berkeley Rep’s associate director, Lisa Peterson, who directed the 2016 production, collaborated with Berkeley Rep’s former artistic director Tony Taccone to devise their original production for radio (Taccone and Bennett S. Cohen did the adaptation), which will stream for free through YouTube on October 13 (and is then available on demand through November 8). Northlight Theatre is one of the nonprofit theaters across the country participating in the simultaneous broadcast. (Goodman, Berwyn’s 16th Street Theater, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, and the Columbia College Chicago theater department are also listed as local broadcast partners.)

A War of the Worlds: 10/15-11/21, Tue-Sat 8 PM CST, Sun 7 PM CST; theatreinthedark.com, pay what you can, but $20-$25 suggested donation.Animal Farm: 10/19-11/20; contact theater for reservation information, steppenwolf.org, free for school groups.It Can’t Happen Here: Tue 10/13, 7 PM CDT via YouTube, then on demand through 11/8, berekeleyrep.org,  F.