Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House
January 20, 2018

A beagle, Polly, bounds up to Charles Darwin, to greet the naturalist returned from his years at sea. The snuffling and affectionate Polly – trailing her costumed puppeteer – is a creation of Queensland’s Dead Puppet Society, and the first of many amazing creatures that populate The Wider Earth, a stunningly realised fictional account of Darwin’s history-making journey on board the HMS Beagle.

The Wider Earth at the Sydney Festival. Photo © Jamie Williams

Written, directed and co-designed by Dead Puppet Society’s creative director David Morton, The Wider Earth – premiered by Queensland Theatre in 2016 – is simply beautiful. Combining theatre, puppetry, animation and music, the show gives a personal account of Darwin’s journey – through which he begins to develop his theories of evolution and the survival of the fittest – capturing the wide-eyed wonder of a young man from Shropshire marvelling at the magnificence of creation, and coming to conclusions that will set him in direct opposition to the established order.

We meet Charles on his return to England, reunited with Polly and his childhood sweetheart Emma, whose own life has continued...