G.K. Chesterton was quite an interesting character. He wrote everything from journalism to poetry, novels to religious tracts. Chesterton loved to verbally spar in public with friends like George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, and H.G. Wells. A man considered ahead of his time, he wrote in 1924, “The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.” Those words might be as apt a description of modern American politics as they were in London 85 years ago. His novel The Man Who Was Thursday is about one man’s infiltration of a secret anarchist society in London. It has been adapted for the stage by New Leaf Theatre. Eight Forty-Eights’s dueling critics, Jonathan Abarbanel and Kelly Kleiman tells us if this world premiere maintains the wit, intrigue, and social commentary of the original.

On Stage:
Man Who Was Thursday
New Leaf Theatre
Through November 21

Related:
The Jeff Awards