We are often very surprised about how and where composers chose their subject matters when creating a new musical.  So far it’s been The First Lady of Argentina,  a TS Elliot poetry  book about cats, and Tim Rice even based one of his on a game of Chess.

Now Joel Goodman & Jan Osborne have turned the extraordinary life of Alan Turning the English mathematician, computer scientist, logician,  cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. and the father of artificial intelligence. Turing played a crucial role in cracking intercepted coded messages that enabled the Allies to defeat the Axis powers in many crucial engagements, including the Battle of the Atlantic

Although regarded as a war hero, the Government summarily dismissed Turing after he was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts. He accepted hormone treatment with DES, a procedure commonly referred to as chemical castration, as an alternative to prison.

Turing took his own life on 7 June 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday by ingesting cyanide . 50 years later following a public campaign the British prime minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for “the appalling way he was treated”. Queen Elizabeth II granted a posthumous pardon in 2013.  In 2017 The term “Alan Turing law” was adopted to informally refer to a new law in the United Kingdom that retroactively pardoned men cautioned or convicted under historical legislation that outlawed homosexual acts.

This new musical is a  biographical account is narrated by Andrea, the fictitious author of Alan Turing’s biography. Alan’s dialogue is directly taken from historical letters that he wrote to his friends, colleagues & his mother.

6th February - 18th March
Kings Head Theatre, London

Performers | Joe Bishop, Owen Butcher, Zara Cooke, Shania-Grace Thompson
Producer | Joel Goodman
Director | Joe Maingot
Composers | Joel Goodman & Jan Osborn