The Divide

The great Alan Ayckbourn may be best known for his brilliant satires on everyday middle-class life in the 1970s and 80s, yet his work also includes a strand of speculative science fiction which he now takes to a completely new level, with this six-hour epic, premiering at the Edinburgh International Festival. A century from now, England is ravaged by a plague which leaves the sexes living strictly divided lives; and director Annabel Bolton fields a cast of 14 and an Edinburgh community choir, in an Old Vic co-production which she says has “the feel of a good box-set – you just want to know what happens next.” King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, until 20 August, 0131-473 2000