One recalls the founding principles of the BBC as, ‘to educate and entertain’. The Last Baguette Company has taken up the challenge on behalf of theatre, in a show which in its brave attempt to explain the near inexplicable and certainly incomprehensible, is science for the interested-but-easily-bored (The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are their nearest competitors for this task). The ‘matter’ in question is ‘stuff’, that is, the stuff you and I are made of. The show is a kind of gallop through the inner reaches of quantum physics – the land beyond the microscope – on the back of an unlikely plot about skulduggery in the quantum world. The antagonist is Erwin Schrödinger (of ‘Schrödinger’s cat’ fame) who turns out to be a beastly cat thief, the dark soul behind all the sad, ‘lost cat’ posters that advertise the woes of folk the length and breadth of the land.
The protagonist, Smithy (Tristan Green) in a kind of extreme, ‘Honey I Shrunk the Boffin’ scenario, somehow finds himself in the quantum world searching for the lost cat of fellow scientist, Sarah (Sidney Robb), who also happens to be the object of his undeclared affection. Pukka scientists might bristle slightly at the nerdy, socially awkward stereotype that Mr Green gives his hero. Others will find his bashful sincerity charming enough to forgive such familiar traits. With the nervous, soapy smile of one about to jump into a cold plunge-bath, silly walks and much other slapstick humour, combined with quick character changes and a song and a dance, Mr Green is endearingly good value.
Smithy’s dragoman in the subatomic world is a bright-eyed proton, a very positive Ms Robb. Using some very dodgy, ‘make do and mend’ style graphics, she helps Smithy track down the elusive and slightly sinister Schrödinger (Ms Robb again) and the missing cat. Had the audience been a little younger they might have booed and hissed on Schrödinger’s entrances. Although no pantomime villain he had the look one might expect of a KGB spy standing on a street corner eying the vicinity for likely moggies. The two actors work well as a team and do a grand job in attempting clarity in what is for most of us a most esoteric realm of knowledge.
After various trials and explanations Smithy returns to the material world to find that Alfred (the cat) is indeed both alive and dead. (As Schrödinger had playfully predicted). More to the point, his adventures had given him the confidence to declare his romantic interest in his intelligent and attractive colleague.
A show that momentarily seduced me into believing that I understood the particle/wave duality problem, shown in the ‘double slit’ experiment, almost qualifies as a public service. However for sheer entertainment value the Last Baguette company deserves nothing but praise. ★★★☆☆ Graham Wyles 21st July 2016
