A Play a Day in May

What started out as a silly joke almost a year ago became an overly dramatic reading project for the lockdown month of May. Something appealed about spending a short amount of time each day immersed in a different theatrical world. I had been enjoying discussions of the National Theatre at Home weekly broadcasts with friends, and wanted to explore the genre in more depth, even if that meant reading a script without seeing it fully staged. Crucially, I had discovered that the University subscribes to the Drama Online site, where almost all of the plays I would read could be accessed for free.

I deliberately didn’t think too long and hard about the list I put together, beyond determining some basic principles: they had to be plays I hadn’t read before; to be a mix of some classic and some more recent works; to be by a diverse range of authors; and to include no Shakespeare… A few minutes’ sleuthing around the internet threw up some interesting-sounding suggestions, to add to others that I had always been meaning to get around to reading.

To the astonishment of no-one more than myself, 31 days later, I have read 31 plays. I had to be flexible, of course: I re-ordered my original list when delivery dates for the few books I did buy were delayed; on some days I had time to read more than one play, to compensate for the days when I couldn’t read any at all. But by the end of the month, I'd made it to the end of the list, from Lucy Prebble's well-crafted analysis of experiment and experience in The Effect to Liz Loughhead's brutal updating of Medea.

Along the way, I think I learned some general lessons for our current situation. First, that in the midst of uncertainty, it can be helpful to pick an achievable, and time-limited project. Second, that a willingness to adapt to changing circumstances is required, even within a strict plan. Third, it is not a case of all or nothing, and much can be gained from encountering something in a different form when it can’t be experienced in person.

Almost every play will remain with me, in whole or in part: a remembered phrase, a character trait, a plot twist, or a stage direction. Although I had selected and listed the plays almost at random, themes and patterns seemed to constantly emerge: contrasting pairs, frustrated ambitions, intergenerational conflicts, questions of faith and fate, science and art, violence and love.

But what to recommend? Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, for the compelling character study at its heart. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, for its claustrophobic evocation of familial tensions and aspirations. Martin Sherman’s Bent, for tragic hope and human connection in the dark. And if you’ve only seen the TV adaptation of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, then you are in for a treat.

So that was May, but what for June...?

Full list of 31 plays

(*Potentially of particular interest to Science and Literature Reading Group members!)

Date	Playwright	Play
1	Lucy Prebble	The Effect*
2	Noel Coward	Private Lives
3	Sophie Treadwell	Machinal*
4	Jessica Swale	Blue Stockings*
5	Timberlake Wertenbaker	Our Country's Good
6	Samuel Beckett	Happy Days
7	Henrik Ibsen	Hedda Gabler
8	Theresa Ikoko	Girls
9	Anton Chekhov	The Seagull
10	Yasmina Reza	'Art'
11	Lucy Kirkwood	Chimerica
12	Phoebe Waller-Bridge	Fleabag
13	Eugene O'Neill	Long Day's Journey into Night
14	Pierre de Marivaux	La dispute*
15	Pedro Calderon de la Barca	Life Is a Dream
16	Caryl Churchill	Far Away
17	Lorraine Hansberry	A Raisin in the Sun
18	August Wilson	Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
19	Athol Fugard	Sizwe Bansi is Dead
20	Janice Okoh	Three Birds
21	Martin Sherman	Bent
22	Iman Qureshi	The Funeral Director
23	John Osborne	Look Back in Anger
24	Tony Kushner	Angels in America*
25	Tim Crouch	An Oak Tree
26	A. Al-Azraki	The Takeover
27	James Graham	Sketching
28	Jean Racine	Phedra
29	Aphra Behn	The Rover
30	Federico Garcia Lorca	The House of Bernada Alba
31	Liz Lochhead	Medea

ADC - End of the Line

London, 1969. A conscientious but mischievous phone-operator uses her specialist skills to avert the end of the network.

The last days of the manual telephone exchange. While the new automated switchboards are being installed across the nation, an operator resents connecting phone calls that are ending the careers of her colleagues. Never shy to a prank, Susan commits herself to take it further, using her skills of eavesdropping, rumour-spreading, and call-misdirection to save the present from the future. When the upgrades were only scheduled in Birmingham alone she was able divert and disrupt them; yet within days the threat starts to close in on London itself.

Unable to match the efficiency of the system, Susan must contend for the human side of the technological sector. Though she is up against an industry that prefers the superfast dreams of the visionaries, who promise instant connectivity and the removal of human error. Susan refuses to leave, in part to complete her employment, and in part to wait for the impossible return of a precious fellow operator.

Further details and ticket booking here.

Theatre at the ADC and Playroom

Lots of upcoming productions at the ADC and Corpus Playroom which will be of interest to members of the Reading Group:

• 'At Home at the Zoo', Corpus Playroom, 18-22 September
• 'The Physicists', Corpus Playroom, 9-13 October
• 'RIBS', ADC, 24-27 October  
• 'Mosquitoes', ADC, 13-17 November
• 'Photograph 51', ADC, 9-13 April

Play reading at Whipple - Isaac's Eye

 
This Wednesday at the Whipple Museum, we are hosting a free staged reading of Isaac's Eye, a play by Lucas Hnath, 17.00 - 19.00, in connection with 'Staging the History of Science', the exhibition at the Whipple Library by Julia Ostmann and Alona Bach, HPS MPhil students. The Whipple Library will be open from 16.30 - 17.00 to view the exhibition.

When young Isaac Newton meets the great Robert Hooke - the most famous and powerful scientist in Britain - the resulting battle of intellects and egos pulses with wit, humour and tension. Presented in conjunction with 'Staging the History of Science', an exhibition at the Whipple Library.

Arrive from 16.30 to visit the library exhibition.

This amateur production is presented by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Ltd.

Free. Please arrive on time.

Recap - Ice

Our third meeting of term took to the Victorian stage and the Arctic wilderness as we discussed The Frozen Deep by Wilkie Collins (with significant input from one Charles Dickens). Simon and his cardboard cast gave a wonderful introduction to the play's influences (notably the 1845 Franklin expedition and the lost Erebus and Terror, the great mystery of which continued to fascinate audiences back in Britain), its writing, dramatis personae, and initially rapturous reception in 1856 (even the set's carpenters were weeping), before a failed attempt at a revival a decade later. Using clips from The Invisible Woman (a 2013 film), he reflected on the play's connections to the unconventional personal lives of both Collins and Dickens.

We went on to discuss several key themes of the play: we explored its presentation of the relationship between destiny and precognition, as epitomised in the striking visions (or 'Claravoyance') of a key character, and links to contemporary interests in spiritualism and clairvoyance (perhaps getting a bit more unfashionable by the mid-1860s?), or the drawing of lots between officers and men; we looked at the work's theatricality (for instance in its staged vision), its drama and melodrama, and how even though it is set in a larger Arctic landscape its acts present a series of three interlinked chamber pieces with quite domestic situations, and the intervening perils only alluded to through (characteristically clunky) expository monologues (with a hint of Monty Python, we thought?).

We thought about why the Artic setting might matter, or not? Was it just a conveniently fashionable location, or - with its connotations of peril, extremity, and isolation - did both supernatural phenomena seem closer to the surface, and also deeper emotions and motivations possible to access? The character of Richard Wardour, in particular, seemed key: was he, as Dickens's biographer Claire Tomalin suggested, an opportunity for Dickens to play a man who overcame his instincts to make a final great sacrifice? Was he someone with frozen emotions until galvanised by a particular situation, or hot-headed throughout? Indeed, we explored whether characters (the Dickens influence?) or plot (the Collins influence?) could be seen as the play's primary driving force.

Overall, a lively discussion and very helpful comments from all who attended: thanks to everyone! Next time we move off from the floating ice-sheets to submerge ourselves under the sea with two pieces by Rachel Carson.


Additionally:
Other songs, poems, etc., referred to in our discussion (with special thanks to the Canadians):





'The Cremation of Sam McGee' by Robert W. Service 

Simon's cardboard cast, as captured by Charissa.

5th June - Ice

Our next meeting will take place on Monday 5th June at Darwin College: we will be reading The Frozen Deep by Wilkie Collins.  Further reading is available here, or why not listen to an extract from its Overture here?

All welcome!

Blame Not Our Author at the Corpus Playroom

The imaginative stage set, which made use of detachable shapes and their shadows.

Last week a few members of the Reading Group went to see this unusual perfomance of a long-lost geometric dramatic work. It was a fascinating evening, full of mathematical and early modern (and early modern mathematical) in-jokes: full credit to cast and crew for taking on such a challenging piece of writing!

I have scanned in the historic notes on the play which were made available to audience members, in case they are of interest to readers of this blog (hopefully they are legible):

Play - Blame Not Our Author

Corpus Playroom, 17-21 January 2017

Enter the world of a Euclidean textbook from the early 17th century, where a melancholic young square named Quadro dreams of becoming the perfect circle. Meanwhile, his dastardly friend, Rectangulus, decides to seek revenge on the entire shape-world, turning Quadro, Line and Circulus against their weary sovereign, the Compass. Geometric chaos ensues, as the characters in an overused textbook are finally given the chance to rebel against their lot in life.

Transcribed and published by the Malone Society in 1983, Blame Not Our Author has not been performed since it was penned in the Jesuit English College in Rome circa 1630. Written for students some 400 years ago, it is packed with visual gags that are farcical, witty, and still eloquent to anyone familiar with school geometry lessons. On another level, it provides a rich insight into a world where publications on practical mathematics, geometry, and technical skills were proliferating in print culture, and reflects certain historical anxieties about public use and abuse of mechanical knowledge.

Book here.

Performance - Professor Bernhardi

Prolonging life – we’re good at that!
Performance of ARTHUR SCHNITZLER’S Professor Bernhardi

28 & 29 October 2016, 7pm (Doors 6pm)
Pre-show talk at 6.30pm
Anatomy Building, Downing Site, Downing Street, CB2 3DY Cambridge

Arthur Schnitzler's unlikely comedy Professor Bernhardi (1912) tells the story of a Jewish doctor who prevents a Catholic priest from giving the last rites to a patient who is unaware that she is dying. It is a play about doctors talking to doctors, raising questions about the Viennese politics and ethics of medical care. The production will stage Schnitzler’s own archival work. It will shed light on his extensive drafts and notes on Professor Bernhardi, held by Cambridge University Library, and the pathology that shaped the creative process of Schnitzler's medical drama. The venue is the Anatomy Lecture Theatre at Downing Site, Cambridge. It has particular meaning for the drama. Anatomical theatres, like dramatic theatres, are places to see and to acquire knowledge. The topography of the anatomy theatre elevates the observer to a position that looks at the open body from above, almost with a birds-eye perspective.

The production is a collaboration between the theatre company [FOREIGN AFFAIRS], the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience and academics from the Schnitzler Digital Edition Project.

Book tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/professor-bernhardi-tickets-27672763982 More information: http://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/events/arthur-schnitzlers-professor-bernhardi

New book - Staging Science

Staging Science: Scientific Performance on Street, Stage and Screen has recently been published by Palgrave Macmillan's 'Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine' series (see here for the full list), including a contribution from former Reading Group member Kirsten Shepherd-Barr on '"Unmediated" Science Plays: Seeing What Sticks':

Kirsten E. Shepherd-Barr examines contemporary science theatre, with particular attention paid to interdisciplinary and experimental theatre emerging across Europe. These dramas reveal, Shepherd-Barr argues, that it is the process of working towards a piece of theatre rather than the finished product that is of greatest interest, both to audiences and to the theatre-makers themselves. Such theatrical performances invite extensive participation in meaning-making amongst all of those involved, including a range of scientific consultants. In conclusion, Shepherd-Barr reads these new dramas as extensively interdisciplinary and co-produced, leading to a new form of productively entangled epistemological experience.

Event - Public Health and Private Pain: A Night of Medical History and Drama

Thursday 5 May at 7pm, Museum of the History of Science, Broad Street, Oxford

Enter the Museum for a unique evening of performance and drama. Drawing from a rich variety of medical plays and historical material, the event will illuminate, provoke, and dramatize developments which have shaped ideas of the body from the 18th century to the present day. Join academics from across the University of Oxford, professional actors from the Pegasus Theatre and staff of the Museum of the History of Science as they show how these developments have been mapped not just by medical writing but by theatre, which has a long history of engaging with science and medicine.

Scenes and readings will include:

• Shelagh Stephenson, An Experiment with an Air-pump (1998)
• George Bernard Shaw, The Doctor’s Dilemma (1906)
• Henrik Ibsen, Ghosts (1881)
• A selection from the WWI poetry collection at Oxford by Sassoon and Owen
• An historical anti-vaccination song
• Joe Penhall, Blue/Orange (2000)

To book your free ticket, please register on Eventbrite here.

A dramatic experiment: science on stage

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm on Monday 11 May 2015

at The Royal Society, 6 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1

A Royal Shakespeare Company event, in partnership with the Royal Society


Why does the story of a scientist, or topic of science itself, make for a
compelling theatrical production?

Join us for an evening uncovering science-inspired theatre.

Our panel will discuss why science stories continue to attract and intrigue
writers and directors, and the claim that such plays oversimplify
scientific theory in the pursuit of an accessible and dramatic narrative.

Hear from Tom Morton-Smith, writer of the critically acclaimed RSC
production Oppenheimer, Professor John D. Barrow FRS, a cosmologist and
playwright, Dr Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, a scholar of science in the theatre,
and Professor Marcus du Sautoy OBE, broadcaster, writer and science
communicator

Chaired by Erica Whyman OBE, Deputy Artistic Director at the Royal
Shakespeare Company.

Tickets for this event can be purchased from the Royal Shakespeare Company

A limited number of tickets may also be available for purchase on the door

Doors open at 6pm

Details here.

UPDATE (20/5/15): Read an article by Kirsten about these issues here; and apparently video from the event is also available here.

Recap - Blinded by the Sun

Characters from the play 'live-sketched' by Simon during Adrian's introduction.

At our second - and last - meeting of term we discussed Stephen Poliakoff's Blinded by the Sun (1996). After dishing out the cake and drinks (not quite the picnic fare represented in the play...), Adrian provided an excellent and thorough introduction to Poliakoff, his work, and even his family.

Alongside Arcadia (1993) and Copenhagen (1998), Blinded by the Sun formed, we learned, the middle of a trio of science plays produced by the National in the 'nineties. Arguably the least well known of these plays, it is also the only one in which, as its opening instructions say, 'The time is the present' throughout. Is this best, therefore, seen as an 'unhappy state of the nation' play?

Adrian identified the key themes of the play's attempt to gain insight into the workings of academia and its relationship with wider society: how, it asks, do science departments response to the world? What does the world want from them, and what do they want from the world? What does the world reward in the sciences and what does it not reward? What do science departments themselves value and/or reward? With Poliakoff's brother a chemistry professor at Nottingham, we felt the playwright had a particular connection to these topics. Scrutiny of the current website of the Nottingham chemistry department shows its quite evident placement in relation to wider audiences, with emphases on student satisfaction and sustainable chemistry ('benign by design').

Guided by Adrian, we also thought about replication and reputations in science, with reference to the cold fusion controversy of the late nineteen-eighties. Does, as the play seem to suggest, a focus on sensational frauds miss many other forms of misconduct or betraying of ideals as part of scientific practice? At several points in the play we felt its characters expressed well the frustrations, insights, and experience of actually conducting scientific research; the different personalities involved seemed to stand in for different types (and generations) of researchers.

The discussion continued to cover everything from perpetual motion machines to detergent. In particular, we talked about several pairs of topics: pure and applied science, individual and group research, gender and careers, counterfeiting and skill, cognitive dissonance and fraud, inspiration and perspiration. A fitting conclusion to our term focussing on this pair of plays.

2nd March - Blinded by the Sun

The second meeting of the Science and Literature Reading Group for this term will take place on Monday 2nd March in the Newnham Grange Seminar Room at Darwin College. Please note the different location from the last session.

We will read Stephen Poliakoff's 'Blinded by the Sun' (1996) - the play is available in the University Library and a copy will also be put in the Whipple Library box file soon. In preparation for the meeting, Adrian has suggested we read up on cold fusion, and also visit the home page of the University of Nottingham School of Chemistry. Intriguing...

Recap - Children of the Sun

Our pair of theatrical meetings began in style, with one of the most interdisciplinary gatherings of readers yet. After a brief introduction to the main themes of the term, we considered the origins of Maxim Gorky's Children of the Sun, written whilst he was imprisoned in 1905: its connections to contemporary revolutionary movements, and as part of Gorky's oeuvre of politically-engaged literature. Many aspects of the play's plot and characterisation, we felt, could be read as commentary on Tsarist Russian society, from the unsustainable complacency and dilletantism of the bourgeoisie, to the restless mob just off stage. (Famously, on the play's premiere the audience panicked, associating the feigned unrest with an actual assault on the theatre.) Though Gorky has been held up as a champion of socialist realism, and his later related interests in biology, aesthetics, and transfigured reality have been highlighted, we felt that his play was not so easily categorised: its playful, almost farcial elements seemed more like pantomime than sober reality.

We also explored the play's nineteenth-century setting, and its connections to earlier literature: Ibsen's An Enemy of the People was an evident point of comparison, another piece dealing with relationships between a scientific figure and wider society, purity and contamination. Turgenev's Fathers and Sons seemed to one participant at least to be an obvious model that Gorky was referencing, confident in his audience's familiarity with the classic work. Indeed, the very year of Fathers and Sons's publication, 1862, was the setting for Children of the Sun. Chekhov and Bulgakov were also fruitfully drawn upon.

Further themes of discussion included the similarities and differences between the speeches, poems, and described paintings in the play, and their associated dramatis personae of man of science, poet, and artist: were some sources of inspiration and dedication to pursuits more insightful or worthy than others? How the sun figured throughout the drama was also discussed, as was the provision and playful destruction of the eggs, and some of the ambiguities of Gorky's characterisation: Protasov could be portrayed in very different ways, according to how one wanted to read or stage the play.

We also considered the role of the man of science, as presented by the play: was it admirable and visionary to focus on the future of humanity, or selfish to neglect the humans in your near vicinity? Should figures self-abnegate before the scientific genius, or see scholarly isolation as a naive retreat from the problems of the commonplace and common people? Broadening out our discussion, we explored more general representations of scientific figures in literature and film, wondering about the (im)possibility of showing creativity on page or screen; whether ; and even whether such stories were more productively conceived of as superhero narratives.

Some further readings, mentioned by group participants:

• David Foster Wallace, 'Rhetoric and the Math Melodrama' (£)
• Helene Mialet, Hawking Incorporated
• Sydney Padua, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage (web and book)
• Marianne Moore on the poet and scientist being willing to 'waste effort'

9th February - Children of the Sun

Our first meeting of term takes place in the No.1 Newnham Terrace Upstairs Seminar Room at Darwin College from 7.30-9pm. We will read Maxim Gorky's ‘Children of the Sun’ (1905), the first of our pair of plays. You can find the play in the University Library, or in the Whipple Library box file from Monday 2nd February. All welcome!

Lent Term 2015 - A pair of plays

This term we will read a pair of plays which in different ways address the role and responsibilities of the man of science. Both readings are available in the University Library, and copies will also be placed at the beginning of term in the Whipple Library box file.

We meet at Darwin College on Monday evenings from 7.30–9pm. All are very welcome to join us!

9th February - Maxim Gorky, ‘Children of the Sun’ (1905)
Meet in the No.1 Newnham Terrace Upstairs Seminar Room

2nd March - Stephen Poliakoff, ‘Blinded by the Sun’ (1996)
Meet in the Newnham Grange Seminar Room

Play - Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer, by Tom Morton-Smith

Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
15 January - 7 March 2015

1939: fascism spreads across Europe, Franco marches on Barcelona and two German chemists discover the processes of atomic fission. In Berkeley, California, theoretical physicists recognise the horrendous potential of this new science: a weapon that draws its power from the very building blocks of the universe. The ambitious and charismatic J Robert Oppenheimer finds himself uniquely placed to spearhead the largest scientific undertaking in all of human history.

Struggling to cast off his radical past and thrust into a position of power and authority, Oppenheimer races to win the 'battle of the laboratories' and create a weapon so devastating that, with the detonation of a single device, it would bring about an end not just to the Second World War but to all war.

As the political situation darkens, Tom Morton-Smith's new play takes us into the heart of the Manhattan Project and explores the tension between the scientific advances that will shape our understanding of the fabric of the universe, and the justification of their use during wartime, revealing the personal cost of making history.

Directed by Angus Jackson whose recent credits include King Lear at Chichester Festival Theatre and Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Full details here.

Radio play - 'The Chemistry Between Them'

This afternoon’s play at 2.15pm on Radio 4 is ‘The Chemistry Between Them’ by Adam Ganz, which explores the relationship between Margaret Thatcher and Dorothy Hodgkin. Details here. 

There is an article by Alice Bell on the play here, and a response by Katharine Hodgkin, Dorothy's granddaughter, here.

Jon Agar's article on 'Thatcher, Scientist', is available here.

Play - Hidden Glory: Dorothy Hodgkin in her own words

Georgina Ferry writes:

This year is the centenary of Dorothy Hodgkin, Britain's only female Nobel prizewinner. To mark the anniversary I wrote a short one-woman show based on her life, work and writings. It was performed in Oxford in the week of the anniversary in May, to accompany the unveiling of a bust of her in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

The production is coming to Cambridge next month, with three performances at the Old Labs, Newnham College, on 12 and 13 November. Tickets are on sale on the door or through an online agency: the link is

www.wegottickets.com/www.wegottickets.com/f/p/1/2059