There are known knowns, there are known unknowns and there is Emma Howlett’s play, a smart feminist take on the mysteries of the physical universe and the eternal limits of science. If that sounds too weighty a theme for a night out at the fringe, well, Howlett, who also directs, has planned ahead and built a fluid, ever-shifting production that spins her ideas with a dazzling lightness of touch.
This is pure ensemble theatre: you cannot put a match between Sophie Kean, Abby McCann, Anna Marks Pryce and Gemma Barnett as they weave five historical stories as a tight unit, breathing as one.
Supported by a residency by the Hugo Burge Foundation and written with Summerhall’s Anatomy lecture theatre in mind, Howlett’s production for TheatreGoose exploits the academic setting by turning the audience into students (pens and whiteboards in hand) and the actors into public speakers, using an overhead projector to put them in the spotlight (neat lighting design by Ed Saunders).
Embracing existential fear … Aether. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
Two of the stories are unexpected; not the one about Hypatia, the ancient Egyptian mathematician and astronomer who was murdered by angry Christians; nor the one about Vera Rubin finding evidence of dark matter in the 20th century; and not the modern-day tale about Sophie, a PhD student drawing on data from Cern in the hope of breaking new ground, while her obsessiveness drives her girlfriend away.
More surprising are those of Adelaide Herrmann, famed for performing the bullet-catch magic trick in her vaudeville show; and of Florence Cook, a 15-year-old medium, hoodwinking a credulous scientific establishment with her messages from beyond. Howlett is intrigued by fiction as well as fact.
Juxtaposed and intercutting, these stories form a collage of truth and illusion, one that embraces the existential fear of always having more to learn about an evasive universe. As concerns go, it is on the esoteric side, but Aether is never less than accomplished.
At Summerhall, Edinburgh, until 25 August
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