A Lateral Events Production:
Prof Alice Roberts – From Cell to Civilisation
Humankind, genetics, and archaeology

A new, groundbreaking, spectacular theatrical production live on stage
Following a sold out tour of the UK in NOV 2026, Alice Roberts returns in FEB 2027!

Prof Alice Roberts said “I’m thrilled to be bringing a new stage show to the UK exploring the story of
us, from Cell to Civilisation.
Blending archaeology, evolutionary biology and genetics and using theatrical sound, light and imagination
to bring the science to life in a way that you’ve never seen before.
We’ll be tracing our origins back, not just to the dawn of our own species, but to the origin of life on
this planet. That’s four billion years of evolution in one evening.
I’m really excited about this, I’ve taken this show to Australia, to Canada, and now it’s coming to the UK.
I can’t wait to share this story with you.”
Who are we? Where do we come from? What does it mean to be human?
For thousands of years, such questions have been explored through philosophy and religion, but the
answers now seem to lie firmly within the grasp of an empirical approach to the world and our place
within it. By peering deep into our past and dragging clues out into the light, science can now provide us
with some of the answers to the questions that people have always asked.
From the first spark of life on earth 3.8 billion years ago, we track the evolution and connectivity of all
living things.
Join us as we follow in the footsteps of our ancestors from Africa into Asia and around the Indian
coastline, to Australia, north into Europe and Siberia, and, eventually, to the last continents to be
peopled: the Americas. We’ll meet some other human species along the way.
We’ll examine the sophistication of some of the earliest civilisations, and we’ll discuss how we know
what we know and why we think what we think, what the science can tell us.
This is the story of us, from single cell to civilisation.