The Social War of 1900 (Unabridged)

This is the play adaptation of Simon Landis’ The Social War of 1900, or The Conspirators and Lovers!, itself a behemoth-sized catastrophe that is often described by critics as one of the worst science fiction novels ever written. The dramatic version does not fare much better, trading in the elephantine girth and overwrought prose of the original with howlingly purple dialogue, erratic plotting, baffling character motivations, equally repellent ideas, and a number of scenes that would be virtually unstageable under even the best of circumstances. In fact, there is little evidence to suggest that Landis ever successfully commissioned a theatrical exhibition of this play. It remained a vanity project, a virulent screed against an ever-changing world that alienated its author, and a radioactively strange work of outsider art that still manages to captivate us today. The Social War of 1900 follows the adventures of Dr. Victor Juno, a Naturalist who heals sickness through animal magnetism, and his sweetheart Lucinda. Juno, the leader of a secret paramilitary society, wages a revolutionary war against an American society steeped in sin and avarice—and, in particular, against a villainous triumvirate known as “The Bloody Conspirators.” But will his revolution succeed? And if so, what form will his idealized utopia finally take?