A RADICAL new interpretation of H G Wells's novel The Time Machine will take its grim grip on the York Theatre Royal Studio tonight and tomorrow at the 2018 York Literature Festival.

Written and directed by Elton Townend Jones and produced by Dyad Productions' co-founder Rebecca Vaughan, this topical and incisive reinvention ponders how much time we have left in our age of uncertainty, where the shadows of tyranny, intolerance and war darken the path into tomorrow. "If civilisation falls today, what will become of us?" asks Dyad in their ninth original production in as many years, premiered at last August's Edinburgh Fringe.

Performed by Stephen Cunningham, a Victorian time traveller transcends the ages from 1900 to our own far future, from the fall of man to the end of the world, discovering the fate of our endeavours and uncovering our darkest fears.

"Can we change the future or has the end already begun?" posits Townend Jones as he presents a philosophical journey, nightmare adventure and cautionary tale rolled into one. "This is the story of us all," he says.

Dyad Productions are makers of "classic theatre with an innovative and contemporary emphasis", touring such works Austen’s Women; I, Elizabeth; The Diaries Of Adam And Eve; Female Gothic; The Unremarkable Death Of Marilyn Monroe; Dalloway and Jane Eyre: An Autobiography since 2009.

"We began working on The Time Machine in 2016, when as usual when we're launching a show at the Edinburgh Fringe [Jane Eyre that year], we start thinking about what we should do next," says Townend Jones. "Talking about it with Rebecca over a nice breakfast, one of stories that came up was The Time Machine, which we feel has found its time and found its place with all the uncertainty in the world; Brexit and Trump.

"We set about putting our own thoughts into such a dystopian piece, and especially its social Darwinism, thinking about how Wells's vision of a world that had spiralled out of control over a thousand years related to our world now, when kindness, compassion and a sense of community are diminishing, aren't they.

"My observation of the world, and I don't know if I'm qualified, but I have to come clean and say my perspective is a Western perspective, where the play is set in a future London with the central character being a cross between Doctor Who and David Bowie – and Bowie has just died around the time we were creating the play."

Townend Jones and Vaughan knew exactly who they wanted to cast as the Time Traveller: Stephen Cunningham, "He has a David Bowie quality about and he's also David Tennant with a Victorian silhouette," says the writer-director. "We place this character from the turn of the 20th century in a dystopian future, amid a sense of general despair about what we might become."

Dyad Productions present The Time Machine, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight and tomorrow, 7.45pm, as part of York Literature Festival. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk