Richmond Shakespeare Presents LORD OF THE FLIES

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies kicks off Richmond Shakespeare’s Season 26 Friday October 18, 2024 and runs Thursday - Saturday evenings at 7:30p and Sunday afternoons at 2p through November 10, 2024 at Dominion Energy Center’s Gottwald Playhouse. A special artoberVA pay-what-you-will preview performance will take place on October 17 at 7:30p in association with CultureWorks.

"Lord of the Flies is the perfect piece for us to revisit as a society. We're thrilled to bring such a compelling story to life with such a vibrant team of artists." remarks artistic director James Ricks. "This play and this story are more relevant today than ever; the ‘tribes’ the boys split themselves into darkly mirror the factionism we see in today's political landscape. Even though the story is from a different time, this production could be set in the very near future,” adds Lord of the Flies director Jeff Cole.

Evacuated from a war-torn world and marooned on a tropical island when their airplane crashes, a group of pre-adolescent boys find themselves battling for survival with no adults to help them. At first, the fair-minded and mild-mannered Ralph seems a natural leader, but as vestiges of civilization fall away, the more aggressive Jack takes control. Jack organizes the boys into a tribe of hunters, searching for pigs to kill and eat and, more alarmingly, watching for the Beast - a malevolent force that the boys believe is stalking the island.

Gradually the frightened youngsters slip from civilized behavior into red-blooded savagery. They battle with inner demons and external fears, with the weakest and most vulnerable at the highest risk. Ultimately, driven by a primitive bloodlust, childish “games” lead to tragic consequences and Golding’s timeless fable exposes the Beast that is in us all and debunks the myth of childhood innocence.