UK-based theatre person and educator Victoria Gould is in the city to conduct workshops that bring together two unlikely bedfellows: Maths and drama. FYI finds out how she hopes to pull it off
UK-based theatre person and educator Victoria Gould is inu00a0the cityu00a0to conduct workshops that bring together two unlikely bedfellows: Maths and drama.u00a0FYI finds out how she hopes to pull it off
Victoria Gould holds a Masters in Applicable Mathematics. Her thesis was on the use of fractals in generating natural looking landscapes in computer imaging.
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Phew! She is also a freelance actor and director, best known for her role as journalist Polly in the BBC soap EastEnders.
This week, her passions converge as theatre group Complicit ufffd's A Disappearing Number will be staged in the city, and a series of Maths and Drama Workshops are scheduled for students and teachers.
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FYI caught up with the actor-educator.
How do you achieve a balance between theatre and mathematics?
I have to keep doing some maths and some theatre. If I do too much of one or the other, I get frustrated. I love theatre and I've worked with mathematical research all my life. Complicit ufffd is the first company that has allowed both my passions to come together. I've worked with them on two productions: The Elephant Vanishes had some scientific ideas. While working on that play I realised that it was okay to bring maths into theatre. Then they suggested we work on A Disappearing Number. And I've also been holding math-drama workshops with teachers and children, on the side.
How is that possible? How can you find creativity in a dour subject?
Oh, it's very possible. Take the circle as an example. The very first time I was asked to do a math-drama workshop, many years ago, I had no time to prepare. All I had in my pocket were my car keys. So, I threw them in the middle of the drama room. I got the kids inside and told them to stand in a position equidistant from the keys. They formed the most beautiful circle. That's an example of a locus, which is a mathematical concept. Fundamentally, a circle is a mathematical notion but it's also perfect for an theatrical ensemble work in which everyone can see everyone else, no one is more important than the other.
Most of us seek refuge in creative arts when we're bogged down by formal education. But with you it is the other way round, isn't it?
When I started working as an actor, I realised I was living on other people's estimation of myself. If somebody didn't like my play, it was a disaster. If I did not land a part, I was bad. When you are working in the arts, you are insecure. But in mathematics, there is complete security. No matter how bad a day you've had, you can go back home and 2+3 will always be 5. There's a certainty about mathematics. You can be lonely and friendless but maths will always be there, the same as it was yesterday.
So maths is your stress buster.
(Laughs) Yes, it is! It's people's expectations about mathematics that stresses them out. It stresses you out because the teacher says, 'So what is the answer? You don't know it? Well, then you are stupid.' It's not the maths but the teaching that causes the anxiety.u00a0
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How did you and Simon McBurney (director of A Disappearing Number) get together?
Simon called me at 11 o'clock one night, as he usually does, and asked, 'Do you want to come to a play tomorrow?' When we met, he read us a very beautiful passage from a book (A Mathematician's Apology, by GH Hardy) that he'd been reading. There were four of us in the room when we decided that we could build a play out of that material. Over a period of three years, the team grew with more collaborators and during the concentrated period of rehearsals, we wrote the play.
Catch A Disappearing Number on August 9, 10, 11 at 8 pm
AT: Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA, Nariman Point. Call 22824567
Tickets: Rs 2,500, Rs 2,000, Rs 1,500,
Rs 1,000, Rs 500, Rs 200
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