Dan Brown’s best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code has been confirmed as the next up-and-coming play to hit the UK. The world premiere of Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel’s adaptation will travel across the country throughout 2021, opening at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley on 3rd April.
Wagstaff and Abel, the Original Theatre Company duo, have previously collaborated on the stage adaptation of the thriller novel The Girl on the Train in 2018. The Da Vinci Code will be directed by Luke Sheppard, hot off the 2019 West-End musical, & Juliet.
Sheppard commented: “Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel’s brilliant adaptation leaps off the page and demands us to push the limits of our imagination, creating a production that champions dynamic theatrical storytelling and places the audience up close in the heat of this gripping mystery.”
The Da Vinci Code follows detective Robert Langdon as he races to solve a baffling series of codes after the mysterious murder of a curator of the Louvre. On the new stage adaptation, Brown commented that he is “thrilled” and “excited to see the unique potential of live theatre enhance this story.
“The team making the production has been faithful to the book, but will also bring something new for the audience, in what is certain to be a gripping, fast-paced stage thriller and a thoroughly entertaining show.”
The Da Vinci Code is Brown’s most famous novel, having sold over 100 million copies and having been translated into 44 languages. The stage adaptation comes 18 years after the novel was published in 2003, and 15 years after the film adaptation – starring Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, and Sir Ian McKellen – was released in 2006.
Both the novel and the film were subject to controversial reviews, especially in regard to the title’s representation of the Catholic church.
The play will travel across the country, with 30 theatres announced so far, including Hull New Theatre, Coventry Belgrade Theatre, New Theatre, Cardiff and King’s Theatre, Edinburgh.
Words by Olivia Emily.