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Lecture

Professor David Peimer
The Manchurian Candidate: Mind Control, Technology, Brainwashing, Conspiracy Theories

Wednesday 5.02.2025

How to watch

This lecture starts on 5 February at 5:00pm (UK).

Summary

This presentation will focus on this 1962 film, starring Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury, and Janet Leigh. It is one of the most iconic movies of the Cold War era and has been called a “classic political thriller that was prescient in its own time and as relevant today.“ This fascinating film speaks to us today through contemporary brainwashing and the imagined loss of cherished American autonomy and free will.

Professor David Peimer

head and shoulders portrait of david peimer looking at camera, smiling

David Peimer is a professor of theatre and performance studies in the UK. He has taught at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and New York University (Global Division), and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing. He has written eleven plays and directed forty in places like South Africa, New York, Brussels, London, Berlin, Zulu Kingdom, Athens, and more. His writing has been published widely and he is the editor of Armed Response: Plays from South Africa (2009) and the interactive digital book Theatre in the Camps (2012). He is on the board of the Pinter Centre in London.