National Theatre’s ‘The Hard Problem’
debuts May 18 at Fisher Theatre

Acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard’s new play premieres on screens around the world

Sedona AZ (May 7, 2015) – The National Theatre of London continues its season with “The Hard Problem” showing in Sedona on Monday, May 18 at 7 p.m. The Sedona International Film Festival hosts the big screen premiere at its Mary D. Fisher Theatre.

Acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love, Arcadia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead) returns to the National Theatre with his highly-anticipated new play “The Hard Problem”, directed by Nicholas Hytner (Othello, Hamlet, One Man, Two Guvnors).

Hilary, a young psychology researcher at a brain science institute, is nursing a private sorrow and a troubling question at work, where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness? This is ‘the hard problem’ which puts Hilary at odds with her colleagues who include her first mentor Spike, her boss Leo and the billionaire founder of the institute, Jerry. Is the day coming when the computer and the fMRI scanner will answer all the questions psychology can ask? Meanwhile Hilary needs a miracle, and she is prepared to pray for one.

Critics are raving about “The Hard Problem”, and it is garnering 4- and 5-star reviews from every major publication in London:

‘Stimulating. Absorbing. A rich, ideas-packed work.’ — Guardian

‘An intellectually charged piece that delights. Pulses with interesting ideas. Elegantly interpreted by Nicholas Hytner.’ — Evening Standard

‘Flecked with Stoppard’s wry, ironic humour and luminous intelligence, directed with exemplary lucidity by Hytner, this is a play that, movingly, wrestles with deep questions about what makes us who we are and with the implications of materialism.’ — Financial Times

“The Hard Problem” will be shown at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Monday, May 18 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $15, or $12.50 for Film Festival members. Tickets are available in advance at the Sedona International Film Festival office or by calling 928-282-1177 or online at www.SedonaFilmFestival.org. Both the theatre and film festival office are located at 2030 W. Hwy. 89A, in West Sedona.