“Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night:
God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.”
Alexander Pope

Isaac Newton - heretic, alchemist, scientist.  A devout, difficult, obsessive man who sought and found God in universal laws of light and motion.

These brilliant discoveries and innovations were part of a greater project that took in other, more dangerous ideas which he was forced to keep secret.

Isaac Newton remains a great influence, within the scientific world.  His shadow looms large, not least in Cambridge, his home and workplace for 35 years.  However, he remains a mystery to many which is why a new play about Newton hits the stage this October, appealing to both specialist and general audiences alike.

Let Newton Be! brings Isaac Newton to life, using his own words and those of his contemporaries.  It is a verbatim play, the script drawn entirely from correspondence to, from or about Newton.  Let Newton Be! focusses on the collision between his unorthodox religious beliefs and his radical experiments with light & optics.

Craig Baxter weaves a compelling narrative showing Newton in many different lights.  We see him as the young boy measuring the speed of wind.  We see him as the isolated Cambridge scholar, practising alchemy in the secrecy of his darkened room.  We see him as the autocrat of British Science, ruling the Royal Society with an iron fist.  Above all, we see Newton as a human being - complex, comical, driven and vulnerable.

Let Newton Be! shows why Newton is as controversial as he is famous.  He was an enormously difficult personality, often in dispute with ‘colleagues’ who he despised, mistrusted or undermined.  However, the play aims to illuminate not to denigrate.  It looks more at a man in dispute with himself who asked fundamental questions about our world.  In doing so, he changed the world forever.

Written by Craig Baxter

Directed by Patrick Morris

Designed by Issam Kourbaj, Artist in Residence, Christ’s College

Performers:
Neil Jones
Paul McCleary
Caroline Rippin

Public performance - Friday 23 October - 7.30pm
Robinson Theatre, Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge

Tickets: 01223 511511, or book online at www.junction.co.uk

Commissioned by the Faraday Institute, funded by the University of Cambridge 8001th Birthday Fund and the John Templeton Foundation, Let Newton Be! will premiere in October 2009, with further performances scheduled for 2010.