The Day of the Triffids
Playwright: J. James-Moody
Director: J. James-Moody
New Theatre, Newtown
30 June – 25 July, 2026
Reflecting the anxieties of post-war Britain, The Day of the Triffids proves to be engrossingly relevant to the contemporary world. Adapted and realised by J. James-Moody in consultation with the cast, John Wyndham’s exploration of survival after disaster is boldly conceived and creatively staged.
As the action spans both place and time, involves catastrophe and blindness on an epic scale and features large carnivorous plants that can communicate and carry a lethal sting, the staging is a challenge. Ingeniously, the triffids are shown only on film. News bulletins pass on information about their developmental structure, the images increasing in size as the triffids increase in numbers and capacity for dominance. Engineered by humans to bolster the economy, restricted to plantations, it is not a surprise they take advantage of the chaos to achieve freedom and power.
The play opens with the devastating green meteor shower which entices the world to look upwards and is followed by the traumatic realisation they can no longer see. A metaphor for the terrifying loss of certainty in the accepted order of things, it is realised effectively on stage. Clever lighting effects and the gestures and gasps of the actors capture their initial wonder at the spectacle but at the same time, intermittent darkness and ominous sound effects convey menace. Whether the shower was natural or the result of a foreign conspiracy contributes to the all-pervasive uncertainty.
The events of the play are narrated by Bill Masen, a biologist, performed with engaging honesty and vulnerability by James Collins, involved in triffid farming. Bill, ironically, was saved as he had been temporarily blinded by triffid poison and hospitalised. His developing love affair with the confident Josella Playton, whose mixture of practicality and sensitivity is well portrayed by Umai Shantharajah, serves to underpin the narrative, as after their enforced separation, he is determined to find her. His quest leads him to meet a variety of characters who embody different perspectives on survival.
Coker, performed with raw energy by Natasha Todd, and responsible for the lovers’ separation, is a fierce supporter of compulsory collectivism but is later to backtrack, realising there is room for choice. By contrast, Torrence, played by an unnervingly cold Max Ryan, is set on making Britain into a fascistic regime and turning Bill into a local lord with the blind as his serfs. Kate Mannix pops up in many guises, memorable as a religious revivalist, as does Nathan Farrow, as an ivory-tower academic. Also memorable is Claudia Elbourne’s blind belief that America will come to their rescue.
Johnnie Ray’s Cry, one of the many ironically selected tracks, features the words,
When waking from a bad dreamDon’t you sometimes think it’s real?
suggests that when reality is a nightmare, there is no waking up. Environmental disaster, decolonisation, AI, intelligent machines and the collapse of democracy are familiar to us. How to reshape a new world? The fictional humans, Bill and Josella, have only hope and clear-sightedness at the close.
