Artistic director of the UK-based theatre group Complicite, Simon McBurney turns mathematical fundas into life's philosophy, with his play A Disappearing Number

He calls his theatre group a terrorist organisation, for it's ability to respond at a very short notice and be prepared to create chaos, creatively, of course. He blushes when you tell him that the female audience of A Disappearing Number has begun to 'fancy' the play's director (he has a wife and two lovely kids waiting for him back home). He appears exhausted from non-stop travel across the world and a quick stopover in Chennai, hometown of legendary mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. But most importantly, Simon McBurney is glad to be finally performing in Ramanujan's country, three years after A Disappearing Number premiered in the UK.

A Disappearing Number has been complimented for its seamless fluidity. A lot of credit for that goes to Nitin Sawhney (music), Michael Levine (design) and Sven Ortel (projection). How was it working with them?
Honestly, that is the way I work -- I am constantly making connections between things. So when you put together two disparate elements, what is important is the connection between them. The human mind is such that if I show you a cellphone and then a table, you will make a connection. That is the nature of storytelling.
One thing I have always done with all my productions is to make connections. At times, I use cinematic language, or radio, or painting. It depends on what the subject is. So when I worked with Michael, Nitin, Paul Anderson (lighting) and Sven, they provided me with different elements and it was up to me to bring them all together. That was my function.