When Simon McBurney wrote a play on Indian math genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, he got the theatre fraternity across the world excited about the dreaded subject. As the play comes to India, Prithvi Theatre gears up to celebrate math for an entire month

Sanjna Kapoor, director of Prithvi Theatre, has been on a chase for the last two years. Her mission: to get UK-based theatre company Complicite's A Disappearing Number to cross the seas. In the meanwhile, Prithvi has built a relationship with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and even the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).




McBurney's play, based on mathematician GH Hardy, seeks to comprehend the ideas mooted by math wizard Srinivasa Ramanujan in the chilly English surroundings of Cambridge during World War I.u00a0

A Disappearing Number has been instrumental in changing a theatre space in the city. It got Kapoor so interested in the subject, she decided to open up Prithvi's hallowed confines to specialists from science.

Through the events planned for Maths Month With Prithvi, Kapoor promises to change the way you view the subject forever.


Sanjna Kapoor opens up the hallowed confines of Prithvi Theatre to the
magic of math. Pic/Nimesh Dave

Science and art don't exactly marry well. What made Prithvi connect with math?
It happened when I saw A Disappearing Number, and read Ramanujan's biography and GH Hardy's book. Hardy talks of how mathematics is a creative process, and why pure math is not a utilitarian science. It's not out there to create a better digital process for computers or to drum up the string theory. These are just by-products.

Ramanujan's theorems are used in string theory but that's not what he had aimed to do. He just wanted to achieve a thought that was completely new and original. I see a connect between that thought and the role of the arts.

The arts are not utilitarian either: they don't help earn you brownie points or fatten your bank balance. They are there for sheer sensorial delight.

But math is an intimidating subject for most people, especially those connected to the arts.
Sure, it is. We sort of dumb down when it comes to mathematics. Perhaps it's because of the stress associated with the subject, and because it's taught so horrendously in schools. We undervalue the subject and our capability to engage with it. But when math becomes palpable, it becomes interesting.

For instance, in the beginning of the play, a professor comes on stage and starts writing equations on a whiteboard. The audience responds with nervous murmurs: "Are we going to get this play?"

But as she goes on, you sense that you are getting what she is explaining, and then you think, "Oh God, I'm not such an idiot after all!"