Blindness

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This event is part of the 2021 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. Visit pen.org/festival to learn more and get tickets for other events.

Blindness, one of the most gripping pandemic novels to precede our current crisis, has been transformed into a chilling, multisensory experience. Adapted by the Tony Award-winning English playwright Simon Stephens from Portuguese novelist José Saramago’s modern classic and directed by Walter Meierjohann, this socially distant theatrical experiment has been hailed by The New York Times as a “beautifully executed…stimulating sojourn back to in-person theater,” with its U.S. premiere at the Daryl Roth Theatre in New York City, following an acclaimed run at the Donmar Warehouse in London.

In Blindness, an inexplicable illness breaks out across an unnamed city, rendering nearly every denizen blind. As degeneracy surges and society verges on the brink of collapse, a lone woman who seems immune to the plague guides her ophthalmologist husband and a makeshift family wrought by quarantine through their newly lawless streets in pursuit of survival and hope. Meierjohann’s production combines cutting-edge audio technology with atmospheric lighting and design that immerses the audience into the sensorial landscape of Saramago’s horrifyingly prescient vision. Hope, however, is inherent to Blindness’ boundary-pushing form: allowing audiences to safely come together as the world begins to emerge from this moment.

Ticket buyers should note that this is an in-person special event in New York City’s Union Square neighborhood. PEN America supporters can secure discounted tickets to this soon-to-be-sold-out show for this special PEN World Voices Festival performance only.

If you have any questions, please visit our FAQs.

Ticket Buyers Should Note the Following:

• All tickets are sold in pairs at the comparable price of a single off-Broadway ticket. This enables a single person to purchase a pod to themselves or two people in a “social bubble” to attend and be seated together. Each two-seat “pod” will be socially distanced six feet away from other pods.
• PEN America supporters can secure discounted tickets to this soon-to-be-sold-out show for this special PEN World Voices Festival performance only.
• This is an in-person special event that will take place at the Daryl Roth Theatre, located at 101 East 15th Street (between Union Square East and Irving Place) in the Union Square neighborhood of New York City.
• Tickets will be provided at will call. Please show your confirmation email when checking in.
• Tickets are non-refundable.
• Masks and social distancing are required, and all attendees will complete a health questionnaire and temperature check prior to entering the theater. For COVID safety information, please visit the event website.

Production Credits

Daryl Roth, Elizabeth Artmstrong, Jane Bergère, Tom Tuft, No Guarantees, Gabrielle Palitz/Jack Lane present
The Donmar Warehouse Production of Blindness

Based on the novel by José Saramago

Adapted by Simon Stephens

With the voice of Juliet Stevenson

Walter Meierjohann
Director

Ben and Max Ringham
Sound Designers

Lizzie Clachan
Designer

Jessica Hung Han Yun
Lighting Designer

Aurora Productions
Production Management

Markus Potter
U.S. Associate Director

Gina Scherr
U.S. Associate Sound Designer

Chris Cronin
U.S. Associate Lighting Designer

David Adkin
International Producer

Professor Hannah Thompson
U.K. Production Consultant

Sara Aniqah Malik
U.K. Assistant Director

Situation Interactive
Advertising

Boneau/Bryan-Brown
Press Representative

Meghan Bartley
Marketing Director

Adam Hess
Associate Producer

DR Theatrical Management
General Management