‘The Catastrophist’, a play by Lauren M. Gunderson, the most performed contemporary playwright in the United States, was the result of two factors: the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that she is married to world-renowned virologist Nathan Wolfe, considered by TIME magazine to be one of the 100 most influential people in 2011.

The play — which premiered online in 2021, in the midst of the pandemic — takes place in 2016 and follows the protagonist’s daily work studying viruses and trying to prevent pandemics. It is an intimate play that tells a true story of love, family and loss, delving into the depths of scientific exploration, the foresight of predicting pandemics and the distressing reality of facing one’s own mortality.

As the author says, ‘I got tired of waking up next to this character and it took me ten years to write it.’ The event that triggered this writing was living in a world shut down by COVID-19, a pandemic that her husband predicted. It will not be the last.

‘The Catastrophist’ is about epidemics, theatre, science and humanity. It is the debut of this play and the playwright on a Portuguese stage and is also a good excuse to reflect on human behaviour when we are placed in extreme situations.

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This is the second time that Marionet stages a play that was previously part of the ‘Reading Theatre with Science‘ initiative, which consists of collaborative translation and public reading sessions that our company organises every two months.