Touching the Void

In 1928 a journalist asked George Mallory why he wanted to climb Everest. Mallory said, ‘Because it’s there.’

Joe Simpson’s memoir Touching the Void, international bestseller and BAFTA-winning film, charts his struggle for survival on the perilous Siula Grande mountain in the Peruvian Andes aged twenty-five.

Adapted for the stage by David Greig, Joe’s story explodes into a bold theatrical fantasia. We discover the counter-cultural world of Alpine climbing and the sensual joy of the mountains; we bear witness to the appalling moment when Joe’s climbing partner Simon Yates, battered by freezing winds and tethered to the injured Simpson, makes the critical decision to cut the rope.

Tense, funny and inquisitive, Touching the Void explores the mind’s extraordinarily rich reservoirs of strength and imagination when teetering on the edge of death.

David Greig’s Touching the Void premiered at Bristol Old Vic, Bristol in September 2018.