Theatre@First, a community theater based in Davis Square, will present the world premiere of a new adaptation of H.G. Wells’ science fiction/horror classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, March 14-29 at Unity Church on William Street.

Written by Robin Abrahams, author of the Miss Conduct advice column in the Boston Globe Sunday magazine, None Escape (The Island of Dr. Moreau) is set in a trauma support group in the present day.

A newcomer to the group, Abigail Prentiss, shares her story of being lost at sea on the way to an elite science conference on an exclusive resort island and finding her way to an even more exclusive sort of island, where nightmarish ideas become flesh, and malign influences hum like insects in the tropical sun.

As Prentiss tells her story, the space and actors around her become the set, the props, and the characters: the megalomaniac Dr. Moreau, his embittered assistant Jack Montgomery, and their Island of painfully transformed “Beast Folk”: Ape Man, the Sayer of the Law, Puma Woman, and more.

Abrahams began working on her adaptation in 2020, when Covid-19 had brought live productions to a halt. “I’ve always loved the book and its tropical island/mad scientist/’Lost’ kind of vibe,” she says. “Wells’ themes –  scientific ethics, colonialism, addiction, class mobility, PTSD, brain science, gatekeeping in academia – are more relevant than ever. The book is also surprisingly funny. I’ve had a delightful time taking my own literary scalpel to this living text and transplanting it to our very own backyard.”

According to director Elizabeth Ross, “The play was specifically written to be performed in a church basement, with only the props and materials you might find in a multi-use community space like that – immersive and ingenious.”

None Escape (The Island of Dr. Moreau opens March 14 at Unity Church on 6 William Street in Somerville. Performances are at 8 p.m. on March 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 27 (masks required for this performance), and 28, and at 2:00 p.m. on March 29.

Tickets are $25 and on sale at https://www.theatreatfirst.org/tickets.