Science: Dramatic: Science Plays in America and Great Britain, 1990-2007

"Science Plays" form a flourishing dramatic sub-genre. The present study provides an informative overview shedding light on the diversity of ways in which the natural sciences and/or scientists are put on stage. Detailed text-based analyses of eighteen plays, many of them previously unexamined elsewhere, exemplify the genre's remarkable variety. "Classics" such as 'Copenhagen' and 'Arcadia' are discussed, as well as e.g. 'Proof', 'QED', 'Taboos', 'Remembering Miss Meitner', 'An Experiment With an Air Pump', 'Blinded by the Sun' and 'Einstein's Gift'. All plays look critically at scientific progress or promise, pointing at socio-political and ethical challenges for today as well as the future. The plays' analyses are embedded into discussions of two vital discourses, the Two Cultures and the Science Wars, as well as the drama vs. performance studies paradigm. Together with background material on various themes, events and personae, 'Science: Dramatic' broadens into a comprehensive work on the science-drama-society interface.