Who would have thought that a film which finds the comedy in mutually assured nuclear destruction would go on to become a much beloved cult classic? That is the case with Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
The film imagines the ultimate Doomsday scenario where a paranoid American General goes rogue and launches a nuclear missile attack on Russia, leaving the mild-mannered American president to warn the Kremlin - and come to terms with the New World Order this action inevitably leads to.
The great Peter Sellers took on three roles in the film – the aforementioned US President Merkin Muffley, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake and of course, the Dr Strangelove of the title, a mad scientist and former Nazi who has very particular ideas about how the human race can survive this nuclear catastrophe.
A new stage version of Dr Strangelove starring Steve Coogan is about to open on London’s West End, this new show will come to Dublin’s Bord Gais Energy Theatre in February of next year.
In it, Steve Coogan takes on not three but four roles, adding bomber pilot Major Kong to his already busy roster. The show is adapted for the stage by the great writer and satirist Armando Iannucci, the man behind hit shows The Thick Of It and Veep.
Sinéad Egan met Armando Iannucci and co-adaptor Seán Foley to talk about the project, which is the first time any of Kubrick’s work has been brought to the stage.
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