Animal instincts _{by Madelaine Empson}

Rural England 1918. Two women struggle to run a small farm, yet are content and comfortable enough until two visitors arrive, disrupting their lives. A young soldier, and a fox.

As a fierce battle of wills unfolds – human and animal, body and spirit – D. H. Lawrence’s The Fox explores the dynamics of power play when instincts are triggered that are as old as life itself.

Wellington Repertory Theatre is thrilled to bring Dunedin playwright Keith Scott’s stage adaptation of The Fox to Gryphon Theatre from the 9^th to the 19^th of July. As director Annabel Hensley says, “the attraction of a new play script is a lure for any director, cast, and crew”.

When reading Scott’s script, Hensley’s first thought was “how well he has managed to capture the essence of a particularly complex set of characters as written in the novella, which Lawrence dashed off within weeks of the armistice which ended WWI in November 1918”.

Hensley notes the theatrical challenge of getting the play from the page to the stage lies “in the depiction of the mores, the characteristic customs and conventions of English society in a very different time and place, over a century ago”.

Wellington Repertory Theatre’s production will transport audiences back in time and draw us into an intriguing and challenging place, at once dualistic and animalistic, as it explores the complexity of the author’s ideas on the relationship between the sexes.

“Lawrence wrote explicitly about sexuality, vitality, and instinct,” the director continues. “His prolific works will always remain evocative, confronting, and controversial.”