Soulstice Theatre had originally planned to open its season with a conversation bertween Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. Instead they’re going to be getting something of a dialog between Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox. The two fictitious semi-brothers from Betelgeuse and their human friend will are slated to replace fictitious representations of two very real physicists this month. For a number of different reasons, Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, originally scheduled to open with Soulstice on Sept. 12 is scheduled to be replaced with live readings of Douglas Adams’ classic sci-fi comedy radio show The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
The episodes scheduled to be read are 1 - 8, which originally aired on BBC radio in the late 1970s. The story in question begins with the destruction of the Earth and ends with a certain Betelgeusian ex-president of the galaxy visiting the Total Perspective Vortex.
It’s all still tentative as this is something of a sudden replacement, but a program featuring live performances of episodes 1-4 (which covers Ford and Arthur’s escape from and eventual return to the doomed planet Earth) are tentatively scheduled to be performed Sept. 19 and 20. A program featuring the next four episodes in the series is tentatively planned to be staged Sept. 26 and 27. This schedule may expand to Thursdays as well depending on the availability of the actors in the cast.
More information will be available with Soulstice online once things become clear. And as there is no formal press release on this, it’s not officially scheduled yet. There is no doubt, however, that Copenhagen has been canceled. Here’s hoping a successful two-week staging of Adams’ classic comedy is a success.
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