Factory International has released first-look rehearsal images for the world premiere of They, a new adaptation of Kay Dick’s rediscovered dystopian masterpiece adapted by Maxine Peake, Sarah Frankcom and Imogen Knight.
The production will run from 5 – 9 July as part of Manchester International Festival.
Dick is widely regarded as the first woman director in English publishing, after she became a director at P.S. King & Son in the early 40s. Her career would also take on journalism, writing for the New Statesman for several years as well as variously working as a reviewer for The Times, The Spectator and Punch. She also edited the literary magazine The Windmill, under the pen name Edward Lane.
Her dystopian novel They was published in 1977, but attracted harsh and reportedly sexist reviews, sold poorly and quickly went out of print. It was then largely forgotten until an old edition was stumbled upon in a Bath Oxfam shop by a literary agent in 2020, leading to a Paris Review reappraisal of the “lost dystopian masterpiece” and new print run by Faber and Faber in 2022, accompanied by a celebration event at the British Library as part of that year’s LGBT History Month.
