We are preparing two sessions of Read Theatre with Science

As every rule has an exception, the bi-monthly regularity of our Read Theatre with Science sessions will change slightly. The good news is that there will be an extra date, the 19th, on 20 June, but we can’t give any more details at the moment.

 

On 17 July we’ll return to the usual schedule, with the 20th meeting, and you can vote HERE for the play we’ll be taking to that session.

 

Following the vote, we will translate the winning text into Portuguese, with the help of the volunteer team from the Collaborative Translation Project, which you can also join. Anyone interested in taking part in the reading and/or translation can sign up by emailing ler@marioneteatro.com

 

Find below the synopsis of the possible works to be read on LTCC #20.

 

“R.U.R.“, by Karel Čapek
The dramatic text R.U.R., published in 1920 by Aventinum (Prague), is a science fiction that addresses the place of Man and his freedom, the denial of God and the consequences of greed and exploitation. This is where the term ‘robot’ appears for the first time, soon naturalized in several languages. Karel Čapek attributed the invention of this word (from ‘robota’; forced labor) to his brother, Josef Čapek, artist and writer, who covered the 1st edition of the work. The stage debut took place in January 1921 and three years later the play was already translated into more than thirty languages.

 

“Trumpery“, de Peter Parnell

It is 1858. Charles Darwin struggles to finish On the Origin of Species and give the world his theory of natural selection, while coping with family illness and his own impending loss of faith. Meanwhile, halfway around the world, Alfred Russel Wallace, a brilliant but virtually unknown explorer and Utopian socialist, has come up with the exact same theory. The one person he sends his abstract to is Charles Darwin. Can Darwin claim priority? And what will happen if he doesn’t finish his own book in time? Vibrantly comic and deeply moving, Trumpery examines what it means to live in a Darwinian universe from the points of view of the men who discovered the idea.

 

“Rain Dance“, de Lanford Wilson

In a ramshackle cantina in Los Alamos, New Mexico, on the night of July 15, 1945, four people await the test of the atomic bomb. Each of them is connected directly or indirectly with the top-secret Trinity project, and over the course of the evening the horror of what is about to be unleashed on the world begins to dawn on them. As tensions mount, and questions of science, religion and morality collide, “Rain Dance” makes palpable the thrilling and terrifying journey of our first steps into the atomic age.

 

“A number“, de Caryl Churchill

This play confirms Churchill’s status as the first dramatist of the 21st century. On the face of it, it is about human cloning… But like all Churchill’s best plays, “A number” deals with both the essentials and the extremities of human experience… The questions this brilliant, harrowing play asks are almost unanswerable, which is why they must be asked.