Let Newton Be! Article by Tamsin Flower – Cambridge Junction 12/3/15
Let Newton Be! Article by Tamsin Flower – Cambridge Junction 12/3/15
It is evident from the outset of this showing that Menagerie theatre company aim to connect with very specific audiences in producing a theatrical biography of Sir Isaac Newton. The Director, Patrick Morris, introduces the credentials of the piece with emphasis on the its’ provenance as a commission by The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. We learn the show has inspired another product – a comprehensive book (with DVD) containing images of the production, photographs of source material and the play-text. Playwright, Craig Baxter (himself a science enthusiast) has written an adaptation that (in using verbatim sources and measured repetition of meta-theatrical devices), guides the less erudite audience member through an edit of archaic and colourful language.
In the absence of suspense relating to the events of a famous figure’s life, the theatre goer will deduce that tension within this 1hr and 20 min’s will be derived from approach to adaptation. Predictably, the structuring of Let Newton Be! has the quality of measured symmetry. This is introduced from the first scene, or vignette. Three versions of Newton – child, student and esteemed Sir, fixate on their separate modes of enquiry as the music (presumably an 18th century reed instrument) plays a repeated motif constituting three notes imposed over recorded music. Young Isaac plays with the gravity of a stone, the student vacillates and old Isaac pontificates…covering space in equilateral distance from each other. Three orbs of light are impressively projected on the Junction’s cyclorama. Blue, red and yellow appear singularly, merge and dissipate throughout the show.
Each scene has a focal action or game that will please the theatre-maker and offers an access point to the audience. In ‘childhood’, the student Newton and Old Isaac don aprons to comment on the ridiculousness of the child Newton’s endeavours. Thus, broad comedy in the form of a ‘gossip’ archetype broadly introduces a theme. Music repeats, orbs appear, the three screens that have been present in an unobtrusive triangle are subtly rearranged by the actors and the next sequence begins. The student Newton is introduced as ‘the drunk’ and stumbles on stage to be met by the child Newton writing down his sins for God’s forgiveness. Their altercation again, rests on the tone of comedy and underlines the struggle between Newton’s religious enquiry, scholarly mindset and visceral needs (he is sick in a bucket).
The pageant continues into a lecture hall and the Royal Society. It is in the debates in which Newton is compelled to defend his scientific, theological and alchemical theories to the mathematician Liebniz and Halley, among others, that palpable tension is felt. In the Liebniz scene, this is particularly true. As he interrupts Newton’s oratory at the Royal Society, Liebniz enters from the auditorium, aligning us with his perspective and foisting through a row of people to challenge our protagonist on-stage. New energy infuses the space and our engagement from this point to Newton’s death is strong. Our empathy with him is heightened as the threat of being disproved or misunderstood is compounded with demonstrations of his fervent isolationism and vocational obsession. We observe that he suffers, and the war with the other elements of himself is cut in stronger relief in the presence of a real antagonist.
Ultimately, the three facets of Newton face each other before framing themselves in each screen and serenely closing their eyes. Judging by the science-fan contingent of the audience, this adaptation pleased its’ academic audience with accurate reference to events. (The anecdotal nature of sequences depicting the prism experiment and ‘Bodkin in the eye’ episode are examples.) The theatre-maker would be equally satisfied with the clear focalisation of each scene on a specific event and treatment. Comedy of visceral functions and (specifically comical groaning noises throughout) was broad enough to satisfy most tastes. Considering challenges posed by the density of material covered and length of the show, this adaptation elegantly fulfilled its functions…and although concentration may have temporarily lapsed during some ricochets of discourse, we were consistently pulled back into Newton’s world by very human elements.
