Next Thursday evening, N.C. State University Center Stage will present The Aquila Theatre Company’s brand-new stage adaptation of British journalist, novelist, and historian H.G. Wells’ classic science-fiction story, The Invisible Man, in Stewart Theatre in NCSU’s Talley Student Center in Raleigh, NC.

According to The Aquila Theatre Company’s web page “H.G. Wells [1866-1946] was one of the fathers of modern science fiction. Writing in England in the late 19th and early 20th century, his published works made bold, thrilling, and often dangerous predictions about the state of humanity in the face of rapid developments in modern science and colossal changes in society. His work has often provided the inspiration for dramatic retellings; Orson Welles’ chilling fictional reality radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds sent America into a mass panic, revealing the power of the popular media. H.G. Wells collaborated with filmmaker Alexander Korda on the 1933 movie The Shape Of Things To Come, which predicted the warfare of [World War II]. His literary works —The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Invisible Man — have all become classics of both the big screen and the bookstore.

“The Aquila Theatre Company will be presenting a brand-new stage version of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, based closely on his 1897 novel. Set in Victorian London and rural southern England, The Invisible Man tells the story of a talented young English scientist named Griffin who makes a startling discovery. Obsessed with the notion of invisibility, Griffin sets out on a secret quest to put his radical theories into practice eventually rendering himself completely invisible. But science goes too far and the invisibility proves more a curse then a blessing, pushing Griffin further and further away from society until he becomes a hunted specter.

“In The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells asks us to consider what it means to be human and how fragile modern society can be. He examines the very nature of existence and questions the achievements of scientific discovery in a beautifully written and ultimately tragic scientific adventure story that has enthralled generations of readers.

“The Aquila Theatre Company will adapt this great classic English story for the stage, using its famous penchant for heights of theatricality to bring H.G. Wells’ story to vivid life on stage in an piece of theatre that promises to be exciting, bold, adventurous and compelling.

“But how are they going to make him invisible…?

“All will be revealed (or not) in Aquila’s new production of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man.”

Second Opinion: Oct. 8th Raleigh, NC News & Observer preview by correspondent Roy C. Dicks: http://www.newsobserver.com/lifestyles/story/1712246p-7970015c.html [login required].

N.C. State University Center Stage presents The Invisible Man Thursday, Oct. 14, at 8 p.m. in Stewart Theatre in NCSU’s Talley Student Center, Raleigh, North Carolina. $23-$28. ($8 NCSU students and $18.50-$22.50 NCSU faculty/staff. 919/515-1100. NCSU Center Stage: http://www.ncsu.edu/arts/. Aquila Theatre Company: http://www.aquilatheatre.com/ontourinman.html.