I meet Sophie Ward during a rehearsal break for the upcoming stage adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s portentous novel Brave New World. She is in dire need of milkshake, she says, ushering me out of the bustling Jerwood Space in the direction of gourmet hamburger (and milkshake, it turns out) joint, Byron.
Facing the future: Sophie Ward
PHOTO L+R
As we wander past bars and restaurants with midweek office-workers spilling onto the pavement, she enthuses infectiously about the play. I feel swept along; my brain is firing like a Catherine wheel so when we arrive at Byron and seat ourselves, we have covered Star Trek as well as art and literature during the economic downturn when Huxley wrote his dystopian novel in 1932.