Pulitzer-Winning Playwright Martyna Majok Is Adapting Fahrenheit 451 for Broadway

A stage adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 is in development and aiming for Broadway. Adapted by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok, Bradbury’s book, an anti-censorship manifesto written during the McCarthy era, is told from the perspective of a book-burning fireman.

Majok’s work includes Cost of Living, for which she won her Pulitzer and was Tony-nominated, Sanctuary City and, most recently, the libretto for Gatsby: An American Myth at A.R.T. “The relevancy of mind domination and the end of the world in our current age needs no words,” said Majok in a statement. “What struck me most in Fahrenheit 451 was its lens on our loneliness. How our yearning for connection and fear of its absence can be feasted upon. How we long to devote ourselves to something true and lasting in a fracturing society. And the ways we blow up our lives to unearth the truth we've buried—which will shatter us into our most honest selves. As Bradbury writes, 'We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in awhile.'"

“It is a privilege and thrill to bring this seminal novel to the stage, with one of our most visceral and acclaimed living writers,” said the producers in a joint statement. “Mr. Bradbury’s and Ms. Majok’s works both stem from the deeply human and personal, and we’re excited by the significance of this collaboration.”

The Bradbury Estate also shared a statement about the project: “We are delighted to bring Fahrenheit 451 to a new audience, with the impact and intimacy that only theater can offer, to be working with producers who care so deeply for the work and with Martyna Majok, a truly great dramatist of enormous intelligence, sensitivity and skill.”

Bradbury’s enduringly popular novel has sold more than 12 million copies and been translated into more than 58 languages since it was first published in 1953.