Another Revolution
I love having the chance to experience new theatrical work, I also love science and math so when I heard about Market Garden Theater’s new work called Another Revolution written by playwright Jacqueline Bircher I knew I had to go. I was also very intrigued by the play’s summary which I will steal from their press release, “Kat and Henry, two graduate students from opposing scientific disciplines, are forced to share a lab at Columbia University in 1968. Amid interpersonal differences, a campus devolving into political chaos, and the uncertainty and turmoil of the outside world, the each discover what it is like to be thrown into some else’s orbit.”
Having read this before seeing the play I was most interested in finding out what two opposing scientific disciplines they might be from. I did not know what two scientific disciplines opposed or disproved each other. What I found is that play is not so much about a fight between two disciplines (spoiler alert: theoretical physics and botany, which I do not consider to be opposing) but instead is about the second half of the play’s summary. It is about the world that they live in in 1968 and about how their different backgrounds that go so much deeper than their field of study affects the way they interact with this world. This play, the play that I saw was exponentially more interesting than the play I was expecting walking into the theater.
The two scientists played by Stanzi D Schalter and Luke Harger are portrayed with all the passion and commitment that I know PdD candidates have. But they were also wonderfully fleshed out individuals with cares or lack of cares outside the lab. It seems that there is no better petri dish to put these two characters in than 1968, the year in which Bircher’s play takes place. The mix of how the politics from the outside world affected not only the scientists but also the science happening in the labs was fascinating.
Market Garden Theater’s production of Another Revolution is playing at the Crane theater through May 26th. It is a great show to see how anyone who is interested in politics or science. Click here for more information about the show and how to get tickets.
*Photo by Kaitlin Randolph