Rough Magic in partnership with Dublin City of Science 2012 / Euroscience Open Forum 2012 will present the rehearsed readings of two plays inspired by science. Both plays will be staged at the Samuel Beckett Theatre in Trinity College.
Wednesday 11 July: Belle Moral – A Natural History €5
By Ann-Marie MacDonald (rehearsed reading). Directed by Maureen White and Ronan Phelan.
Following her father’s death, amateur scientist Pearl MacIsaac struggles to discover the secret of her family’s past, which her father had kept hidden with the help of the family doctor. Set in Scotland in 1899, this dark and redemptive gothic comedy is a story of family secrets come to life and of the birth and evolution of ideas – truly a play of morals. Reaching out in two directions to reconcile the extremes of rationalism and romanticism, Belle Moral embraces a complex range of turn of the century thought including Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, contemporary medical beliefs and the concept of eugenics.
Cast: Andrew Bennett, Peter Daly, Michele Forbes, Will Irvine, Nick Lee, Jane McGrath and Jody O’Neill.
Friday 13 July: Copenhagen €5
By Michael Frayn (rehearsed reading). Directed by Lynne Parker.
In the autumn of 1941, at a critical point in the Second World War, German physicist Werner Heisenberg paid a strange visit to his Danish counterpart, Niels Bohr. To this day, speculation has raged over precisely what they discussed. These two former friends were among a handful of scientists around the globe who could unlock the secret of nuclear warfare.
In probing the mystery of this meeting, Michael Frayn has created an extraordinary play – gripping, haunting, exhilarating and moving – which asks how we can ever know why we do what we do.
Cast: Ronan Leahy, Arthur Riordan and Ali White.
