X & Y
I have never been mathematically inclined. Some would even go as far as to accuse me of mathematical illiteracy.
So reading in this newspaper that New College, Oxford’s own Marcus du Sautoy had written – and was starring in – a play based on mathematical principles, I was keen to indulge in a little self-improvement. Du Sautoy, of course, is the man who made maths fun and accessible – the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a television personality who is doing for his subject what Brian Cox did for Astronomy and Janina Ramirez for Saxon relics.
My first niggling doubts were raised when I entered the foyer of the Oxford playhouse. This was not a gathering of laymen but academics – even the younger members of the audience had the fixed gaze and engaging awkwardness that comes with intellectual genius. And the banter, as I took my seat was all ‘gown’. I was already out of my depth. But Marcus would see my right, I thought; after all, he holds the Royal Society’s Faraday Prize for excellence in communicating complicated subjects.
That’s just as well, because complicated it proved to be. But complicated in a simple way – if that isn’t contradictory. The stage set is beyond minimal – just a hollow cube in which all the action takes place (and I use the word action reservedly). Said cube – one of a very large (but not infinite, we discover) number of rooms – is occupied by ‘X’, a barefoot Marcus dressed in white pyjamas. His happy equilibrium is upset when a traveller ‘Y’(mathematician and Eastenders actor Victoria Gould) enters, carrying a smaller cube on her back.
The dialogue too is sparse, hinging on in-jokes of mathematical principles, paradoxes and impossible theories, before ending in a blaze of existential doubt which plays fast and loose with the boundaries of the stage, theatre and the role of the two actors themselves. T is all set to a shimmering, fittingly minimal piece of ambient electronica by Stephen Hiscock.
It was all jolly good fun, and both actors engaging – particularly the troubled du Sautoy, who channels child-like innocence and stroppiness. No doubt it also meant a great deal, answering deep questions about maths and the universe and where we are all going. Alas, that bit was over my head. I was paying attention though. Honestly.
TIM HUGHES 3/5
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