A Disappearing Number
Complicite
Conceived and Directed by Simon McBurney
September 10 to 14, Power Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
University Musical Society
How often are you going to find a play about both an Indian character abroad and Math? Not that we APAs are all Math geeks, but, well, you know...
Following its triumphant production of The Elephant Vanishes in 2004, the theater company Complicite (pronounced kum-PLIH-si-tay) returns to Ann Arbor for the exclusive US presentation of its award-winning hit, A Disappearing Number.
In the chilly English surroundings of Cambridge on the cusp of the First World War, the English mathematician GH Hardy unexpectedly receives a letter filled with mathematical theorems from a young Indian visionary, Srinivasa Ramanujan, whose idiosyncratic and creative approach to mathematics ultimately led to some of the most complex and beautiful mathematical patterns of all time.
Complicite’s innovative, multimedia approach frames past, present, and future simultaneously, with the Hardy/Ramanujan collaboration serving not only as a central aspect of the narrative, but more so as a window into a larger world of ideas: about the awesomeness of infinity and its relationship to human mortality, about the beauty of science and our quest for meaning and knowledge, about who we are and how we connect to one another — and ultimately about what is permanent and what disappears forever.
“With touching emotion and unnerving disquietude, A Disappearing Number forces the spectator to consider the facts of love, death, and belonging, within the space of his or her own personal universe.” (New Statesman)
Related Activity: UMS Book Club: The Indian Clerk
Sept. 8, 7 pm, Ann Arbor District Library (343 S Fifth Ave., Ann Arbor, MI)
In David Leavitt’s The Indian Clerk, the English mathematician G.H. Hardy unexpectedly receives a letter filled with mathematical theorems from a young Indian visionary, Srinivasa Ramanujan, whose idiosyncratic and creative approach to mathematics ultimately led to some of the most complex and beautiful mathematical patterns of all time. UMS is assembling U-M experts on math and literature to explore the themes in David Leavitt’s breathtaking novel. This event is an excellent primer for those attending the UMS presentation of the theater company Complicite’s A Disappearing Number, which draws on the relationship between Hardy and Ramanujan as a central story line in the play.
University Musical Society www.ums.org.
