Camden New Journal (London) 21 April 2005

Science and arts in stylish conflict

PHALLACY

New End Theatre

By RACHEL CALTON

IN the premiere of Carl Djerassi’s Phallacy, science and art do battle on stage. She is an art historian, passionately dedicated to antiquities and most importantly the bronze statue of a young male nude.

He is a scientist, eminent in his field, able to pin dates to antiques using highly-developed technology.

When he steps in and re-attributes the date of the statue, undoing her published hypothesis that it is a Roman original, a lively debate is born.

Does the “crass” financial value of art reduce its aesthetic value?

Does scientific analysis rule out wider historic interpretations? Can passion outweigh objectivity? Can one rule of investigation ever bring us the truth?

However, this is not just the battle of truths, it is the battle of two academics, both as impassioned by the debate as they are devious in their ways to undermine each other.

This gives way to strongly played characters in an entertaining and jocular relationship.

The interplay between the two professors and their younger underlings is witty and light-hearted and anybody who fears intellectual overkill can rest at ease with Hamish Clark as Otto. Best known for his role as kilt-donning Duncan in BBC’s Monarch of the Glen, Hamish’s fun-loving humour works just as well on stage. The performance is as funny and flirtatious as it is topical and clever.

Like Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, Phallacy is cleverly staged. History and the present day act themselves out on the same stage, the interplay showing the characters’ struggle to find the statue’s true story.

Even though compromises have to be made to tie up the play, the love interest between the underlings that looks to span the divide has an interesting outcome.

Carl Djerassi, also author of Calculus, is a renowned scientist. He is best known for the invention of the contraceptive pill, an achievement which made him the only living person to be included in the Sunday Times list of the 30 Men of the Millenium.