⟨Theatre|Science⟩
Audio of Prof Armand Leroi’s National Theatre Platform Talk on the Evolutionary Biology in Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem, given in the Dorfman Theatre on 16th February 2015.
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An energetic new piece of theatre structured around some excellent science communication will be part of the National Theatre’s new 2015 summer season.
Islington Community Theatre’s Brainstorm, which was first performed at London’s Park Theatre earlier this month, will be re-staged on 21st-25th July 2015 in the National Theatre’s temporary theatre on the South Bank.
A cast of ten teenagers from Islington schools devised Brainstorm under the direction of Ned Glasier and Emily Lim, based on ideas in a TED talk by neuroscientist Prof Sarah-Jayne Blakemore. The result is a funny, chaotic and moving account of teenage life, infused throughout with the latest science of the adolescent brain.
The energy of Brainstorm more than filled the modest space of the sold-out Park Theatre in January, so it is excellent news that the production will reach wider audiences as part of the NT summer programme.
Public booking for Brainstorm opens on 12th February. Advance booking for National Theatre supporters is already open.
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Welcome to new visitors who have arrived via the RSC Chemistry World blog. If you are interested in finding out more about The Effect by Lucy Prebble, there will be a new production in Sheffield in June 2015. Oppenheimer by Tom Morton-Smith opens in the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon on 15th January 2015. The RSC has a Q&A with the writer Tom Morton-Smith here.
For a scholarly account of science and theatre, Dr Kirsten Shepherd-Barr’s book Science on Stage is an excellent
place to start. Carl Djerassi’s plays (including Insufficiency) and Shelagh Stephenson’s An Experiment With An Air Pump may also be of interest. Chemist Rowena Fletcher-Wood has recently produced a play about Ludwig Boltzmann called Trusting Atoms.
Follow the links from each play on sci-stage.com to find details of past productions or browse for new plays and productions using the map, the calendar and Twitter.
New productions opening in January 2015 with a scientific theme include The Hard Problem at the National Theatre and Brainstorm, a devised play by Islington Community Theatre about the teenage brain, in connection with the Wellcome Trust.
There are some promising events in store for science-on-stage in 2015 as new works premiere and established pieces are revived.
The Royal Shakespeare Company will open its winter season in Stratford-Upon-Avon with a new work by Tom Morton-Smith about the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. Depicting work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos in the 1940s, Oppenheimer will preview from 15th January and then run in the Swan Theatre until the 7th March.
It’s 21 years since Tom Stoppard’s classic Arcadia premiered at the National Theatre in London but it’s only a few weeks until the NT produce new work by Stoppard with a scientific theme. The Hard Problem will be the last production to be directed by outgoing NT director Nicholas Hytner. It promises to be an intriguing production to finish on, as Stoppard tackles brain science and consciousness in his first new play since 2006. The sold out production will be staged in the newly refurbished Dorfman (formally Cottesloe) Theatre and will run from the 21st January to April 2015.
Also in the new year, English Touring Theatre will take a production of Stoppard’s Arcadia directed by Blanche McIntyre around various venues until April, beginning at the Theatre Royal Brighton on 20th January 2015.
With Southampton Nuffied Theatre’s production of Caryl Churchill’s A Number (with stage design by Tom Scutt) to transfer to The Young Vic in London in later 2015 and the Broadway premiere of Nick Paynes’s Constellations, there’s plenty in store for science in theatres in 2015.
A new play depicting Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann opens this week in Birmingham. Trusting Atoms: The Last Trials of Ludwig Boltzmann by Rowena Fletcher-Wood will be performed on the 24th-27th September in the Cadbury Room on the University of Birmingham’s Edgbaston Campus.
Described as portraying Boltzmann “in his battle to save the dying theory of atoms, his equation and his career”, Trusting Atoms also features Lise Meitner, who was inspired by Boltzmann during her time at the University of Vienna in the early 20th centuary.
Further information about the production is available here.
Several science-in-theatre productions are touring the UK this month. HeLa, Adura Onashile’s show about Henrietta Lacks, is currently touring the Scottish highlands and islands before reaching Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre on 3rd October. The production will then go on to venues in New Zealand in October. 
Idle Motion’s engaging Bletchley Park themed production, That is All You Need to Know is embarking on an extensive national tour, taking in nearly 20 different venues over the month from the 17th September.
It’s also possible to book ahead for performances of Hanging Hooke. Take the Space Theatre Company are performing this play about the life of Robert Hooke in Chelmsford, York and Crawley during October and November.
Menagerie Theatre’s Ideas Stage programme links writers and scientists in order to create new pieces of theatre. The latest Ideas Stage project will be presented at the Hotbed Festival in Cambridge this weekend.
A House Divided, written by Craig Baxter and video artist Marc Atkinson, is described as “inspired by the work of Professor Emily Holmes and Dr Martina Di Simplicio of the MRC-Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, on ‘mental imagery’, emotion and the study and treatment of bipolar disorder.”
Craig Baxter’s previous works for Menagerie include Let Newton Be! and Re:Design in conjunction with the Darwin Correspondence Project. His sleep science monologue Somniloquy featured at the 2013 Hotbed Festival.
An early stage presentation of A House Divided will be given at Cambridge Junction at 11am on Sunday 13th July.
There are plenty of opportunities to catch a science-in-theatre production in the sunny southern hemisphere this year. Productions of Lucy Prebble’s The Effect are going on in Australia throughout the year. It’s currently on in Brisbane until 5th July, with opportunities to see it in Sydney and Melbourne in the coming months. Meanwhile, Nick Payne’s Constellations is being produced in South Africa with productions in Johannesburg from 8th August and in Cape Town from 30th September.
Productions of Constellations also open in Wellington, New Zealand on 26th July as in Sydney, Australia on 8th August.
Keep an eye on the Science Centre Stage calendar and map for further details of productions coming up near you. 
There’s s now only one week left to catch neuroscience drama Incognito at London’s Bush Theatre before it closes on 21st June. A fundraising gala performance on Thursday 19th June will conclude with a Q&A session with the writer Nick Payne.
Meanwhile, the first details of the USA premiere of Payne’s play Constellations are beginning to emerge. The production will preview from 16th December 2014 and open at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway on 13th January 2015.
Michael Longhurst (who also directed the Royal Court production in London in 2012) will direct Jake Gyllenhaal as Roland in Payne’s one act play about the relationship between a physicist and a beekeeper which draws on ideas from multiverse theories.
Read more about Incognito and Constellations on ScienceCentreStage
Adura Onashile has been shortlisted in the Best Female Performance category of the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland for her show HeLa. The results will be announced at a ceremony in Glasgow on 8th June.
A number of new dates for the tour have been confirmed, including the Baltic, Newcastle on 5th June
HeLa – By Adura Onashile – Promo Video from Natasha Lee-Walsh on Vimeo.