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The Element in the Room: A Radioactive Musical Comedy about the Death and Life of Marie Curie Reader's Review
The Element in the Room: A Radioative Musical Comedy about the Death and Life of Marie Curie
The Element in the Room: A Radioactive Musical Comedy about the Death and Life of Marie Curie is, as the title suggests, a show about the scientist Marie Curie. While her life as a whole is covered, the talented John Hinton concentrates on the year 1921, when Marie visited the US at the request of an American journalist.
Standing on an empty stage in a long, high necked dress, with only an accordionist to accompany him, John Hinton becomes Marie Curie, as well as several other key figures from her life and even, from time to time, himself, as narrator and commentator on the story. This is an extraordinary show to watch, as Hinton changes his posture, voice and accent the characters come alive. He deals with the lack of props by using mime to set the scene and there are various musical interludes too, which keep the show even more lively. I'm not sure I'm ever going to get the refrain to the Radium song out of my head.
My 11 year old son thought 'It was funny, inventive and generally an extremely good show. I think that everyone should see it and everyone would enjoy it. He was amazing at doing mime and I liked the songs'.
I would highly recommend this show to anyone interested in science, or simply in a good story. It is a fascinating tale that has given me and my son plenty to talk about since we saw it together. The music is fantastic and there is even an entertaining game in the middle involving the entire audience, a ball of luminous yarn and the periodic table.
This show is part of Tangram Theatre's Scientrilogy, all playing at the Pleasance. Having greatly enjoyed their first show, on Darwin, at the Edinburgh Science Festival earlier this year, we are really looking forward to seeing the final one on Einstein. If you can make it to one or all of the shows, you should!
This show is a PG.
Reviewed by Abigail Fuller 8 August