A Dead Body in Taos

When they called saying your body had been found, I had one immediate thought. I remember thinking that maybe now I'd be free. Sam hasn't spoken to her mother Kath for three years when she learns that she's been found dead in the New Mexico desert. Travelling to the small town of Taos to identify the body, she discovers Kath had become embroiled in a shadowy enterprise, offering Sam an unimaginable chance to rebuild their broken relationship. But to do so, she must decide whether she can finish what her mother started. David Farr's compelling new play is both an unsettling science fiction and an intimate study of loss and bereavement, examining how artificial intelligence could alter our understanding of death, consciousness and the soul. A Dead Body in Taos opened at the Bristol Old Vic in September 2022.

David Farr is a writer and director. His plays The Danny Crowe Show, Elton John's Glasses, Night of the Soul, Ramayana, The UN Inspector, The Heart of Robin Hood, The Hunt and a collection of adaptations have all been published by Faber. He was Artistic Director of London's Gate Theatre from 1995 to 1998, and Joint Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic from 2002 to 2005. He has directed Coriolanus and Julius Caesar for the RSC and The UN Inspector for the National Theatre. In June 2005 he became Artistic Director of the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, where his productions included new versions of The Odyssey and Kafka's Metamorphosis. In 2009 he became Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, where his productions of The Winter's Tale, King Lear and The Homecoming opened to critical acclaim. He also writes for television and film, including all six episodes of The Night Manager for the BBC, the hit Amazon show Hanna, and The Midwich Cuckoos, which was released on Sky Max in 2022. He directed the first production of Thomas Adès's Powder Her Face for Almeida Opera in 1995. David's first book for children, The Book of Stolen Dreams, was published in 2021.