staging indias einstein

Complicite
A Disappearing Number
Drama

“A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns….”
(G.H. Hardy)

"An equation for me has no meaning, unless it represents a thought of God." (Ramanujan)

Press release:
Simon McBurney, who debuted in Vienna at the 2002 Wiener Festwochen with The Noise of Time, incessantly invents alluring, complex theatrical worlds where memory and the past play key roles in illuminating the present. His new work, which will be premiered in London in April 2007 as a Festwochen co-production, is centred on the outstanding Indian mathematician Ramanujan, whose “civilian job” was that of a Madras post-office employee.

A self-taught spare-time mathematician, he was considered one of his era’s most brilliant mathematical thinkers by the international academic world of the early 20th century. An Indian physician and a man dreaming of India round off a cast of characters whose story explore the dreams of our new global migration society. This is a theatrical meditation on the dialectics of knowledge and power, on communication and loss.

“Successfully navigating the apparent divide between avant-garde experiment and a popular mainstream, Complicite has become known internationally for the physical dexterity and darkly comic inventiveness of its collaboratively devised work.”
(Fifty Key Theatre Directors, 2005)

Nitin Sawhney is widely regarded as one of the most creative talents in music today, a music pioneer who has collaborated with many of the world's leading international artists, orchestras and music producers.

Concept and director: Simon McBurney
Music: Nitin Sawhney
With: David Annen, Firdous Bamji, Paul Bhattacharjee, Hiren Chate, Divya Kasturi, Simon Pandya, Saskia Reeves, Shane Shambhu
Production Complicite, London

Shows: 29, 30, 31 May, 1 June, 7.30 p.m., Hall E at the MuseumsQuartier

Discussion with the audience, free admission, 30th May, following the performance. Hall E at the MuseumsQuartier

Information and Tickets:
Festwochen Service Phone (+43-1) 589 22 22
www.festwochen.at