words Emma Hemingford
What if I told you it was possible to live forever? Would you jump at the chance, imagining an illustrious career, guilt-free hedonism, and endless holidays – or would you run from the idea, perhaps fearing ennui, loneliness and depression? Either way, you probably have a strong, instinctive reaction to the question – and you’re not alone. Humans have been equal parts enthralled and disturbed by the thought of immortality for as long as we’ve existed. Our oldest known work of fiction, The Epic of Gilgamesh, details a long, perilous and ultimately unsuccessful journey to discover the secret of eternal life. The Victorian period brought us Oscar Wilde’s dark, Faustian fable, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, and as a child I was fascinated by Natalie Babbitt’s novel about an eternally youthful family, Tuck Everlasting. All these stories use immortality as a lens to explore the meaning and nature of human existence.
Recently, however, I began to notice a spate of real world stories about immortality: specifically, news articles about the boom of Silicon Valley investment into longevity medicine. Tech giants like Google and entrepreneurs such as Jeff Bezos are investing billions of dollars into anti-ageing science, exponentially accelerating progress in the field: recently, the BBC reported successful experiments on mice which increased their life-span by 25%, with human trials of the same drug now underway, and as far back as 2019 biochemist Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte performed experiments on mice which rejuvenated their tissues and organs on a cellular level, seeming to literally turn back time. These advancements in cellular reprogramming, coupled with the advent of novel gene therapies and the development of a plethora of new drugs, has led leading scientists to predict that the first generation of people to live to 1,000 has already been born.
The more I read, the more it seemed that for the first time in human history, the quest for immortality was exiting the realm of fairytale, and becoming a tangible medical possibility. This made me want to write a new kind of story about immortality: one grounded firmly in our 21st century world, which grappled with the pressing ethical concerns raised by contemporary biotech. The result is my play FOREVERLAND, on at The Southwark Playhouse this October. The play is set in a near future in which advancements in gene therapy have made something akin to immortality possible for the privileged. It tells the story of a couple in their thirties, Jay and Alice, who decide to undergo treatment to radically extend the length of their lives. The couple hope this decision will give them time to perfect their careers, relationship, and eventually, their family – we watch the consequences of their choice unfold over one hundred years. At the same time, FOREVERLAND reflects on the wider social repercussions of these expensive, life-extending drugs, and how they might reshape our world politically, environmentally, and intergenerationally. In the past, we have always welcomed medical advancements which have extended the human life-span: is there a line that must not be crossed?
In FOREVERLAND I tried to imagine what the interpersonal and psychological effects of immortality might look like in a familiar (if privileged) setting, as the characters – Alice and Jay – navigate sex, parenthood, mental health struggles and petty domestic squabbles about who takes the bins out against a backdrop of unlimited time. Grounded in this intimate story of one family’s love and loss, I hope the play encourages us to think about the very human consequences of current advancements in gene therapy: the enormous benefits these developments might bring, who they stand to benefit most, and the social structures and personal relationships these technologies stand to transform forever. But when writing about immortality it is hard to escape the realm of parable entirely, because stories about cures to death always ask us to think about what makes existence meaningful in the first place. So, in the end, I hope the play functions on two levels: as a gripping drama about the future of biotechnology, and as a timeless story about what makes a good life; for this generation and the next.
FOREVERLAND by Emma Hemingford runs at Southwark Playhouse from 2nd – 19th October 2024
Tickets are available from https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/foreverland
