Merging physics and drama
Hannah Moscovitch’s play Infinity looks at how science tears a family apart
The acclaimed Ottawa-born playwright Hannah Moscovitch found herself in uncharted territory while working on Infinity, a drama revolving around a family torn apart by science. It opens at the National Arts Centre next week.
Usually she can research her way out of any creative quandary, but this time, an expert was brought in to help out with the tricky science bits. The behind-the-scenes role of “consulting physicist” was filled by Lee Smolin, the American-born University of Waterloo professor best known for his book, Time Reborn, and his groundbreaking work with quantum physics.
To her surprise, he had a great sense of humour, and was determined to challenge the nerdy scientist stereotype.
“He’s really funny,” Moscovitch said in an interview. “One of the things about talking about a theoretical physicist is they’re very creative thinkers, and so are we, so we’re similar but we have none of the same language. To talk to each other is absurd. We’re really excited to be around each other, but we have no idea of what to say so it’s a lot of looking at each other with big wide happy eyes and smiling and gesturing.”
With Smolin co-writing the technical passages and Moscovitch handling the dysfunctional family drama, the play helps shrink the gap between science and the arts. At its heart, it’s a love story, Moscovitch says, but it also explores the repercussions of a major scientific discovery.
“One thing the play does thematically is take you inside an epiphany,” Moscovitch says. “I’m taking you into the epicentre of what it is to have an epiphany, what it feels like, what it looks like, what it takes and what are the circumstances that swirl around a person who is in the midst of a big epiphany in their life.”
It was exciting for Moscovitch that Smolin had gone through a similar whirlwind while researching and writing his game-changing 2013 book, Time Reborn: From the crisis in physics to the future of the universe.
“Lee’s actual theories are embedded in the play,” Moscovitch explains. “So it’s not physics out of a textbook. I worked with a living, breathing, thinking physicist who’s in the process of crystallizing his ideas. So they’re very fresh and new for him, and in the same way, they’re fresh and new for the character, too.”
The characters are Elliott, the physicist (played by Paul Braunstein), his wife, Carmen, a violinist/composer (Amy Rutherford), and their adult daughter, Sarah Jean (Vivienne Endicott-Douglas). Infinity premièred in 2015, commissioned by Toronto’s Volcano Theatre. Directed by the company’s founding artistic director, Ross Manson, it earned the 2015 Dora Mavor Moore award for best new play.
Music is a key element of the production, thanks to a solo-violin score composed by Njo Kong Kie and performed by Andréa Tyniec on a Stradivarius. “The music is interwoven into the play to such a degree that you can’t really divide them,” says Moscovitch. “It’s a very rich part of the project.”
For Moscovitch, a Glebe Collegiate grad who last year became the first Canadian winner of the prestigious Windham-Campbell literature prize, the upcoming run marks the debut of her work at the National Arts Centre.
“The GCTC has done a bunch of my plays,” she said, “but I’ve never had a play at the NAC. I really like the theatre and I like the programming they’re doing so I like that my play is part of it. And I grew up seeing plays there so it has a sentimental meaning for me for sure.”
After high school, Moscovitch studied acting at the National Theatre School in Montreal, originally drawn to theatre by the prospect of “speaking aloud text that’s beautiful.” However, at one point her professors urged her to change programs.
“They wanted to switch me to the playwriting program, which isn’t ever really done. Nobody switches between programs,” she says. “I don’t know if it’s because I was such a s--- actor or a good writer. I was so insulted, I said no.”
She laughs about it now, but admits she never planned to be a playwright. “I don’t know if I ever thought in terms of a career,” she says. “I was never very forwardthinking about it. I just wanted to do it.” lsaxberg@postmedia.com twitter.com/ lynnsaxberg