David Baddiel's debut play skilfully stirs up a toxic potion of science and belief
In his stand-up show My Family: Not the Sitcom, London comedian David Baddiel shared painful revelations about his father’s dementia. And in the preface to this, his first stage play, he reveals his father as a passionate scientist, even through the fog of his condition. So God’s Dice can perhaps be seen as another tribute to his dad.
The title (referencing Einstein’s nostrum that God does not play dice with the universe) sets the battle lines and parallels between science and religion in the familiar setting of academia. Baddiel, culturally Jewish and avowedly atheist, chooses Christianity as the religion with which science finds itself in conflict.
From the get-go, Alan Davies’ physics professor Henry Brook – all tousle-haired and tweedy charisma – quickly establishes a rapport with his packed lecture theatre. He throws out tantalising ideas about the possibility that many worlds exist in parallel in the same space and time as our own and, after the lecture, he is waylaid by student Edie (Leila Mimmack). Drawn to that charisma, she recognises she can harness it by marrying his theoretical physics with her own deep-held Christian beliefs. Brook is excited and beguiled by her forensic explanation of the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine.
Their resulting collaboration, a best-selling book describing scientific probabilities behind miracles and therefore the existence of God, makes Brook a cult figure. It is this toxic cocktail of science and Christianity that drives the action. Edie’s cool, smug certitude in her beliefs is chilling and authentic. It’s clear she has an agenda and that she can orchestrate events to promote it.
By contrast, Brook's wife Virginia is a best-selling feminist writer on atheism. This might seem calculated, but Alexandra Gilbreath’s warm, witty and passionate Virginia ensures more than just the schematic in the contrast between the two women. Deservedly, she gets the lioness’s share of the funny lines. Virginia’s prowess as celebrity pundit has rather overshadowed her affable husband to date, but that’s all changing as the couple navigate potential choppy seas in their relationship.
Baddiel reveals the terrifying storms in the Twittersphere, whipped up by the rage of the faithful against Virginia’s latest volume and exacerbated by the contrast with the ‘proofs’ of their new prophet, Brook. A caustically comic subplot involving Brook's bestie, fellow middle-aged academic and would-be lech, Tim (a slightly seedy Nitin Ganatra, deftly avoiding stereotyping), gagging to make a pass at Edie adds the fizz of campus comedy to the mix. There is convincing support, too, from Adam Strawford as Billy, the over-the-top acolyte of the budding Messiah figure that Brook is unwillingly becoming.
Director James Grieve orchestrates it all on designer Lucy Osborne’s tiered set. Fast-moving panels provide levels, whiteboards and ingenious spaces for Ash J Woodward’s multi-screen video projections. Add Sound Designer Dominic Kennedy’s increasingly angry and disturbing voices, first from the book launch audience and then Twitter, and what is admittedly a wordy play gains the momentum needed to reach its chilling conclusion. It makes for an absorbing two hours that demands and repays attention.
By Judi Herman
Photos by Helen Maybanks
God's Dice runs until Saturday 30 November. 7.15pm & 2.30pm. From £22. Soho Theatre, W1D 3NE. www.sohotheatre.com