crispin whittell

A brand new comedy about science and ethics by "a new young dramatist of exceptional wit and promise for the future" - Daily Telegraph

"No, really, who needs evolution when you have plastic surgery?"

Malibu, California. The present.

Charles Darwin has wound up in a beach house overlooking the Pacific with a girl young enough to be his daughter. One hundred and forty-five years have passed since the publication of The Origin of Species, and over a hundred and twenty years since Darwin's own death.

But his peace is rudely disturbed when his old friend Thomas Huxley washes up on the beach, closely followed by the Bishop of Oxford. Darwin suddenly finds himself entangled in a sparkling comedy of life and death, love and loss, and the sex lives of hermaphroditic barnacles.

Darwin in Malibu premiered at Birmingham Repertory Theatre where it was nominated for the TMA Award for Best New Play.

"Fiercely intelligent...an exceptionally spry play, with big ideas and a big heart. You should see it - not just because it's there, but because we are here. Along with the barnacles and stars." Guardian