theatre
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference."In the early 1980s, quantum physics hadn't arrived in the way it has now. Insignificance didn't have a single quantum physics joke in it," says Terry Johnson, whose 1982 play about Einstein and Marilyn is revived at the Donmar Warehouse next week. Johnson has now rectified this lamentable situation. "Quantum physics has arrived in the play in an interesting persona. That of an animal," he says mysteriously.
Other than this, the fact of restaging the play, which is set in the 1950s, has thrown up some interesting conundrums. "In the early Eighties the paranoia over the cold war had lots of resonances with the same paranoia in the Fifties. Now that the cold war's over, it gives the play a historical feel," he says. But any rewrites he had done have been to do with craft, not anachronism. "I'm a better writer now than I was," he laughs. "I've calmed down a bit, made it simpler."
Judy Davis took on the daunting role of Marilyn in the original production and now Frances Barber (above) returns to the stage for the first time in three years to slip into those Monroe slingbacks. What prompted the playwright to take the dangerous step of portraying historical figures on stage? "I think it was down to inexperience," he candidly admits. As a director-writer, he is keen for a degree of verisimilitude but doesn't, of course, cast purely on physical similarities. "Actresses who resemble Marilyn often don't convince, but if people are real, audiences trust that." After all, Insignificance is not a biography of Marilyn or Einstein. "It's a history of America seen through those pairs of eyes," Johnson says.
'Insignificance' opens at the Donmar Warehouse, WC2 on 7 Jun (previewing now) (0171 369 1732)
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments