A lot has happened in the world since Ray Bradbury wrote his 1953 Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury has adapted his novel for the stage and it is the current guest production by Bradbury's Pandemonium Theatre Company at the Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena. Bradbury's play starts slow, with some weak transitions, and yet there are some promisingly powerful moments.
For those who are more familiar with Michael Moore's documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, a title Bradbury protested, this story is about book burning. The title refers to the temperature at which books will ignite, but the story is not meant to be about censorship.
There is, in this script adapted by Bradbury and directed by Alan Neal Hubbs, a slight speech about how minorities worked to condemn certain books. According to Bradbury, though, this story was originally written to express his great love of books and his fear that the boob tube was making us mindless.
In the future, firemen do not put out fires; they burn books. Guy Montag (David Polcyn) is one such man, following in the footsteps of his father. During one such burning he secretly takes a book. This brings him to the attention of his captain (Michael Prichard) and scares his wife (Meaghan Boeing). He also finds himself drawn to his young neighbor, Clarisse (Jessica D. Stone). He is eventually forced to flee, and joins other lovers of literature.
The future Bradbury imagined in the 1950s doesn't reflect what we know now. Sure there are now huge televisions, but what about the Internet, GPS, and books online? A few miles away, a rare book was on display at the local botanic garden - totally on a computer screen. Bradbury's script doesn't attempt to address issues the audience would be familiar with. If you argue Bradbury is staying true to his original vision, he has already made some changes to the plot for the play.
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