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1st
EMBL/EMBO Joint Conference 2000 |
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Session
IV |
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| Science in theater |
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Carl Djerassi, Stanford University, USA
Science is inherently dramatic – at least
in the opinion of scientists because it deals
with the new and unexpected. But does it follow
that scientists are dramatic personae? Or that
science can become the stuff of drama? Until now,
"science-in-theater" has proved to be a rare genre,
although play-wrights of the caliber of Brecht,
DŽrrenmatt, Whitemore, and Stoppard have on occasion
chosen scientists or scientific themes as components
for the plots of major plays.
A more recent phenomenon of the London theater scene is the appearance
of "pure" science-in-theater plays by prominent playwrights who
are not scientists. Steven Poliakoff1s Blinded by the Sun attempted
to illuminate some of the idio-syncratic aspects of a scientist1s
drive for name recognition as well as the competitive aspects of
a collegial enterprise through a theatrical version of the chemical
"cold fusion" debacle of the early 1990s. Michael Frayn1s Copenhagen
calls upon quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle for much
of the scintillating interplay during a war-time encounter in Copenhagen
between two physicists, Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr, under
the skeptical eye of Bohr1s wife. Although Frayn made no concession
to scientific illiteracy, the play still became a major West End
theatrical success.
But can "science-in-theater" also fulfill an effective pedagogic
function on the stage or are pedagogy and drama antithetical? Must
pedagogic motivation be an automatic kiss of death when writing
for the commercial theater? "Didactic," other than "boring," is
usually the most damning term used by a reviewer to drive a prospective
audience from a given play. Is that because the dictionary definition
of the term is "designed or intended to teach" and that common wisdom
tells us that a theater-going public abhors being taught?
br>However, Webster1s dictionary contains also an expanded definition
of "didactic," namely "intended to convey instruction and information,
as well as pleasure and entertainment" [emphasis added] – a modern
version of Horace1s famous line from Ars Poetica: "Lectorem delectando
pariterque monendo" [delighting the reader at the same time as instructing
him]. Carl Djerassi has attempted to accomplish both aims in a "science-in-theater"
play ["An Immaculate Misconception"] in which information about
an important aspect of assisted reproductive technology is presented
together with some of its ethical dimensions.
There is one other point worth mentioning about "science-in-theater.".
Written scientific discourse is invariably monologist, so that even
a lecture based on such a text lacks any dialog. Yet dialog is the
most human form of communication and the defining characteristic
element of theater. 3An Immaculate Misconception2, though dealing
entirely with science, is pure dialog.
Biography
Carl Djerassi
Carl Djerassi, Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University, is
one of the few American scientists to have been awarded both the
National Medal of Science [for the first synthesis of a steroid
oral contraceptive - the Pill1] and the National Medal of Technology
[for promoting new approaches to insect control].
A member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as many foreign academies,
Djerassi has received 18 honorary doctorates together with numerous
other honors, such as the first Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the first
Award for the Industrial Application of Science from the National
Academy of Sciences, and the American Chemical Society1s highest
award, the Priestley Medal.
For the past decade, he has turned to fiction writing, mostly
in the genre of science-in-fiction,1 whereby he illustrates, in
the guise of realistic fiction, the human side of scientists and
the personal conflicts faced by scientists in their quest for scientific
knowledge, personal recognition, and financial rewards. In addition
to 5 novels [Cantor1s Dilemma; The Bourbaki Gambit; Marx, deceased;
Menachem1s Seed; NO], short stories [The Futurist and Other Stories],
and autobiography [The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas1 Horse], he
has recently embarked on a series of plays, which he describes in
his web site as science-in-theatre. An Immaculate Misconception,1
first performed at the 1998 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and subsequently
[1999] in London, San Francisco and Vienna [under the title Unbefleckt],
was broadcast by BBC Radio on its World Service in May 2000 as Play
of the Week.1 His second play, Oxygen1 [co-authored with Roald
Hoffmann] will open in 2001. A radio play adaptation of his novel,
The Bourbaki Gambit,1 was broadcast by the West German Radio [WDR,
Radio-5] in June 2000.
He is also the founder of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program
near Woodside, California, which provides residencies and studio
space for artists in the visual arts, literature, choreography and
performing arts, and music. Over 1000 artists have passed through
that program since its inception in 1982. |
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