FOR RELEASE: May 3, 2000
Contact: Franklin Crawford
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ITHACA, N.Y. -- Combine the literary talents of two renowned chemists with a passion for theater and the result is "Oxygen," a two-act play by Carl Djerassi and Roald Hoffmann that is set for 10 performances at the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco, through May 14. Directed by Andrea Gordon, "Oxygen" is a fully staged professional workshop production at the same theatre where Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" began.
Hoffmann, a Nobel laureate in chemistry and the Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor in Humane Letters at Cornell University, and Djerassi, professor of chemistry at Stanford University, best known as developer of the oral contraceptive pill, describe "Oxygen" as "a play about priority and competition in science and the moral consequences of these ... about the discovery of oxygen and revolutions, chemical and political ... and it is about the Nobel Prize."
"Oxygen" alternates between 1777 and the year 2001 when the Nobel Foundation decides to begin awarding a "retro-Nobel" for those great discoveries that preceded the establishment of the Nobel Prizes 100 years before. Foundation members think the task will be a simple matter of reaching back to a period when science was done for science's sake, when discovery was pure and unalloyed by controversy and hype. But the plot thickens when the French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier is forwarded as a candidate. Lavoisier seems a shoo-in: the father of modern chemistry, he is credited with the discovery of oxygen. But did he really discover oxygen? Or was it Joseph Priestley, the English Unitarian minister? Or was it the Swedish apothecary Carl Wilhelm Scheele? And what do their wives have to say about it all?
Beyond their impressive scientific credentials, both men are noted for their literary endeavors. Hoffmann is the author of three books of poetry and three books of nonfiction; Djerassi has published five novels and a short story collection in a genre he calls "science-in-fiction." He also has written an autobiography and more recently embarked on writing a trilogy of plays, the first of which ("An Immaculate Misconception)" will be broadcast on May 7 as 'Play of the Week" by BBC World Service.
"Oxygen" evolved from discussions between Hoffmann and Djerassi about a fascinating historical coincidence: In 1774, Priestley was a guest in Lavoisier's home, and the English minister described how he had made oxygen. At approximately the same time, Lavoisier received news of a similar discovery from Scheele. But Priestley and Scheele did not know what they had discovered and Lavoisier seized the day.
Hoffmann and Djerassi take the facts and run with them, bringing all three men and their wives together, at the invitation of King Gustav III, to Stockholm in 1777. The rest is pure theater as the play shifts between the 18th-century characters, their science, politics and ambitions, and the Nobel committee's 21st century arguments.
The playwrights collaborated on "Oxygen" for nine days in August 1999 at Djerassi's London summer flat and for a week at Cornell. Subsequent drafts and revisions have been a long-distance affair.
The Eureka production follows staged, rehearsed readings given last December and February respectively in San Francisco (ODC Theatre) and London (Tricycle Theatre). The play also received an earlier reading by faculty at Ithaca College. These events served as workshops and provided vital feedback, said Hoffmann.
"Science is inherently dramatic ... " write the authors in a paper about their collaboration, "... because it deals with the new and unexpected ... but can "science-in-theatre" also fulfill an effective pedagogic function on the stage or are pedagogy and drama antithetical?"
Aye, there's the rub. Plays of ideas, particularly scientific ideas, are a rare though not entirely ignored genre, the authors explain. Successful productions of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" and currently on Broadway, Michael Frayn's "Copenhagen," are proof that science and scientific plays can indeed hold their own in the footlights -- as long as the human element shares center stage.
Djerassi and Hoffmann have labored to ensure that audiences who attend "Oxygen" are entertained as well as edified. The authors are hopeful that "Oxygen" is bound for full productions in United States and London stages in 2001, with Swedish, Danish and German production likely that same year. The Eureka's workshop production was made possible by a grant from the Camile and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. Additional support was provided by the Alafi Family Foundation.
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