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Plays International - South East Round Up Column |
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by Jeremy Malies
Eastbourne theatre-goers had a different experience at the Winter Garden with Siobhán Nicholas' Hanging Hooke which concerns the polymath Robert Hooke (1635-1703), regarded by many as the English Leonardo. A prodigy, he was making serious speculations about evolution in his early teens while observing fossils on the Isle of Wight . He would go on to propose the inverse square law for gravity and be treated shamefully by his contemporary Isaac Newton.
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Review by
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(March 2011)
In seventeenth century England there lived a man, one Robert Hooke, a contemporary of Isaac Newton and Christopher Wren and undoubtedly a genius to rival Leonardo da Vinci, yet he has been almost written out of history and forgotten - until now! This is his story!
The performer (Chris Barnes) stands motionless and listening as the voice of an auctioneer booms through the room describing a manuscript, the folio of Robert Hooke, for sale but with a reserve of one million pounds and, switching back in time, the play begins.
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Blog by Ellie Dawes - In 2011 I am going to make a resolution to see 52 plays. I'm interested in seeing both professional and decent amateur productions. It's a great feeling when you go to the theatre and are told a new story you have never heard before.
Hanging Hooke tells the story of Robert Hooke. Before seeing the play I thought I knew that Saint Paul's Cathedral was designed by Christophen Wren. Turns out he designed it with Robert Hooke, a man who until now I'd never heard of.
I'm not alone in this. This relatively new play written by Siobhán Nicholas, tells the story of a man effectively written out of history. And not just any man, Hooke is described as the English Leonardo Da Vinci. He is a gifted architect and engineer, he designed a prototype flying machine, a clock that would work on a ship and some of the most sophisticated microscopes and telescopes of the day. He was also a fine artist, drawing amazing illustrations for the books he published on the natural world. He was a scientific genius, he wrote about natural selection before Darwin, figured out gravity before Isaac Newton and is the person who told us all how springs worked.
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Reviewed by: Victor Hallett CLWYD THEATR CYMRY, MOLD. , October 16, 2010
Robert Hooke was the renaissance man who provided Newton with crucial information about gravity, coined the word cell in biology, had some inkling of evolution, helped Wren design St Paul's and planned the Monument as a telescope.
So why isn't this polymath more widely known? Well he was not well-born, he had a hump and he was not a social animal. Also he had the misfortune to be wholly disliked by Newton who was not averse to stealing ideas and giving no credit. Indeed to take over Hooke's public position, namely Curator of Experiments for the Royal Society, and wipe him out of the Society records.
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Hanging Hooke at Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts |
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Our own Leonardo, Robert Hooke has for long been the unacknowledged genius of the Restoration. A hugely gifted polymath, his greatest error was to unwittingly make an enemy of one Isaac Newton. And the price he paid was his reputation.
In a virtuoso performance Chris Barnes plays both the brilliantly inventive scientist and his oldest friend, the painter Jack Hoskins. A simple stage is set with easels and scientific instruments all positioned on a bed of words. Hanging before the backcloth is an empty frame, symbol of Hooke’s portrait destroyed on the orders of his envious and selfish rival.
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A tale of celebrity, secrecy and betrayal, focussing on uncelebrated polymath genius Robert Hooke: Isaac Newton’s most hated rival
Matan Czaczkes, 25 May 2010, O'Reilly Theatre, Keble College
Hanging Hooke is simply excellent, both as a play and as a performance. A one man play about an episode in the history of science does not sound like a great idea, so it is a testament to the skill of both the actor, Chris Barnes, and the playwright, Siobhán Nicholas, that it was so captivating.
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