I want to take you back to a time when
Pluto was a planet I’m six years old in
primary school and my teacher writes on
the board the list of planets in order
they distance from the Sun Mercury Venus
Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune
booter only I know she’s wrong I know
this because everyone else has a crush
on Jason Donovan and I have one and
Patrick Moore my brother had his book as
a Christmas present and I’ve read it and
in it Moore says that the order of
Neptune and Pluto changes right now it’s
Pluto Neptune so I stick up my hands and
I tell my teacher because I’m six and I
have no idea about social boundaries or
the fact that being corrected by a
child’s going to really annoy her and
she says oh but your brother’s good at
science I thought you’d be good at arty
things
now let’s leave aside the gender
stereotypical assumption I think she
made their heart though that is though
was an aside if you have a daughter you
take it to Science Museum’s but this is
the moment when I first realize the
divide between the arts and science that
they must be kept separate some have
some mythical reason and how our
education system enforces that and
pushes you down one path or another and
I grew up resenting that fast forward
her prediction proves true my brother
continues to be good at science he did a
math degree I did an English one but if
he is after graduating I pick up a book
john kerry’s what good to the arts and I
read his argument that protein algebra
are in fact pretty similar they’re both
after a ball down truth and I start
thinking about my early love of the
sciences and scientific discovery and I
write a play about the first human
vivisections and a few years later I
realize that science and medical themes
are increasingly creeping into my work
and I start to question why I conclude
something quite Stark I passionately
believe in theater I believe in its
power to influence and change thought
and that changing thought can change
lives and society I believe in society I
also believe that if theater is to
continue to be relevant in the 21st
century then it has to engage with
scientific thought than any ethical
considerations arising from that why
well to explain we need to look what
theatres for and how it came to be when
humans first discovered fire this is a
potted history for here so bear with me
we sat around campfires and we told it
to the stories one voice then the chorus
came along gone we had essentially two
voices dialogue and then characters and
boom there it was
we now have film and telly and radio
drama but there is still something very
powerful about us all coming together
into one space so explore what it means
to be human
because I think that’s what theatre does
explore and it can be Hamlet banging on
about something or other or a comedy but
the currency
the same what it means to be alive and
how we navigate that and that hasn’t
really changed since we sat around the
fire except now now things are changing
for good or ill we’re stepping out of
natural evolution because of medical and
scientific advancement science used to
explain the world around us now it can
shape an influence both its analysis of
species in ways that are unprecedented
we can keep someone alive through organ
donation and blood transfusion we can
help infertile couples can see by our
IVF we can bioengineer glow-in-the-dark
monkeys using DNA collected from
jellyfish and we can grow human organs
on the backs of mice and we can
interfere in the human genetic code
we’ll soon be able to make designer
babies and in the UK it’s now legal for
a baby to be born with three genetic
parents the first British baby like this
will probably be born later this year
not think any of this is right or wrong
what I am saying is that if theater is
to continue asking questions about what
it means to be human we can’t ignore
these issues they’re too pressing so why
aren’t we seeing a glut of plays with
medical and scientific themes at their
heart why are we picking up Slough to
turn cards and moaning really a new play
about DNA sequencing again I think this
comes back to the education system the
presumption that for artists science is
hot the scientists a potential audience
for this work the arts or at least the
process behind them really means unknown
and the end process and result can’t be
quantified like a set of lab results so
as communities we rarely talk to each
other and it’s the public actual and
potential theatre goers you miss out
it’s exciting to have those
conversations though during a period of
research and development into play I’m
currently working on we invited a
science professor into the rehearsal
room the actors enthusiasm was off the
chart a real professor I mean a living
one and I’ve sudden smile so much as
when I read an email sent from a
scientist to a scientist about a query I
sent going actors theater people what’s
not to love but I think one of the
reasons we don’t have those
conversations is because it’s hard
algebra and poche you may have the same
pure heart but once written in words and
one in numbers we speak different
languages few years ago I co-produced a
front palace that Wales Millennium
Centre for the theatre company an agent
160 from palaces happens around the
country each year the idea is based on
the 1960s premise from playwright
genital woods and architect Cedric price
that there should be community hubs
where the arts and sciences come
together and everyone can participate we
staged a series of monologues in ours
and I wanted to write one about organ
donation which is the Welsh consent law
and that was just about to change
I like theater to be relevant and that
was about to affect roughly 3 million
people now I’m married to a medic and I
have a real aversion to mansplaining but
after a few days research on the
internet I walk into the kitchen as he’s
making tea and I say darling
I need you to explain to me how to cut
out the human heart he’s worrying the
use to this sort of query and he says
aha I have just the thing
logs onto website I’ve never seen before
with a look of real Glee hits print and
presents me with a step-by-step guide
for how to do just that so I got back in
together it slightly concerned that this
is what doctors do before they perform
operation I know I try to read what’s on
that piece of paper and I can’t
understand a word nothing so go back
into the kitchen and I say I need you to
explain to me how to cut out a human
heart he looks at me confused and I
realize we’re about to begin a process
of translating scientific language to
theatrical language I scribble all over
that piece of paper I write down what a
heart smells like what you’d see if you
were in the operating theatre I condense
parts of the operation a little I
perform a science to theatre vector
shift I’m currently working on a play
about sperm donation with a looming
theater in 2023 the first wave of
children conceived by a gamete donation
in this country will be able to trace
their genetic parents if
and only if they know they were
conceived that way this could affect
thousands of families each year what did
this law change mean for couples seeking
don’t gamuts now how will the child view
the donor their genetic siblings their
parents should they legally have to be
told they’re the donor like they are in
New Zealand what does all of this mean
for the family units how we view it how
we use that unit to construct society
we’re hardwired to explore social
questions through story we evolved that
way and as we continue to make
scientific discoveries which take charge
about individual survival and even our
evolution as a species I think we need
story more than ever we need to explore
what it means to be human in the 21st
century we need to come back to the fire
finally it’s a playwright it feels
really strange for me to be up here
giving you my words myself so I’ve asked
Nathalie pazi to revisit the piece
featuring organ donation she originally
performed at the center here’s an
abridged version of a mother’s heart
it starts with Rhys my son that’s where
my heart story starts we’re in a bus
shelter one just outside from Here I am
attacking his face with wet wipes when I
feel it my heart banging inside my chest
like a warnin I tried to ignore it but
it won’t stop the bus arrives early but
the driver says we can get on
I tell myself it’ll stop soon and I pay
I park Reese in the pushchair space I
breathe out in again five minutes before
we leave what is wrong with my heart I
go over some facts I learned from uni
repeat them like a prayer the human
heart beats a hundred thousand times a
day every day
it pushes 2,000 gallons of blood through
60,000 miles of blood vessels a woman’s
heart is 20% lighter than a man’s heart
a woman’s heart is smaller than a man’s
heart doctor who has two hearts who to
larger than female hearts I look at my
Claddagh ring I think of Daniel Reese’s
the SPECT of his dad a smaller heart
doesn’t love any less Reese points at
the door he wants to get out so I reach
into the pushchair basket for something
to distract him I glanced happened I see
him accelerating towards us he’s on a
motorbike he’s heading for the bus for
the window by me Andreessen my heart
it’s screaming at me it’s telling me to
I take the brake off the pushchair I
shove it down the bus and the bike hits
it’s my seat me truckin in pain my ribs
bacon I’m thrown to the right I fall on
my back I turned my head to look at the
pushchair
a woman is taking Reece out she looks at
me darkness my heart story is settling
into darkness well I don’t know why this
darkness is I try not to panic but I
need to become conscious how do I do but
Reese I need to be with Ricci he’s not
good with strangers you won’t settle
sirens I can hear sirens undone your
voices it’s calling my name again and
again it’s working I’m coming back on a
machine I can hear a machine it sounds
like the sea wait how darkness
oh the darkness no no this isn’t
right thing I need to be with Reese’s
always with me my heart wants to panic
but it can’t something is controlling it
my heart doesn’t beat like this love is
not robotic race sunlight
a hospital room oh well this feels
different I feel less branded I’m
standing next to a hospital bedroom with
two women doctors there’s a woman in the
bed unconscious she looks like a
washed-up jellyfish I want to go to her
but I can’t move my feet
why don’t they comfort her hold her hand
but they ignore me no they can’t hear me
darkness Reese Reese the way his skin
looked round and old when he was born
like like a treasure map waiting to be
and killed the same room the woman again
more people they’re taking blood have
you asked if you can do that have you
asked if you can do that today
takis what is the way he rubs ice cream
on his face from the cornice says he’s
doing his makeup his Bobbi Brown of the
way he’ll only fall asleep if I hold him
tightly next to me in his bed like we’re
in a ship’s cabin being tossed by the
waves a different room artificial liked
a woman the people are wearing masks and
the man stands over her he’s his
middle-aged portly takes out a knife
cuts through and a saw and he opens her
chest
he’s inside her chest he’s wriggling his
hands around like she’s his he takes out
her heart he looks at it curiously like
a child looking at something scooped
from a rock boom he holds it out over a
cool box and it slips away from him how
a woman’s left hand sticks out from
under the blue sheet she was a Claddagh
ring my Claddagh ring
I look at my heart I look at it and I
see I see one of them snaps the cool box
shut and runs up to the room like she’s
scared L wake up I close my eyes send
myself back to darkness I rest in it a
while I open them here because one day
Reece will come here and I will tell him
my heart is inside somebody else now but
it still beats for you when I looked in
the cool box my heart as the name Rhys
stumped through it like a stick of rock
you
[Applause]
Pluto was a planet I’m six years old in
primary school and my teacher writes on
the board the list of planets in order
they distance from the Sun Mercury Venus
Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune
booter only I know she’s wrong I know
this because everyone else has a crush
on Jason Donovan and I have one and
Patrick Moore my brother had his book as
a Christmas present and I’ve read it and
in it Moore says that the order of
Neptune and Pluto changes right now it’s
Pluto Neptune so I stick up my hands and
I tell my teacher because I’m six and I
have no idea about social boundaries or
the fact that being corrected by a
child’s going to really annoy her and
she says oh but your brother’s good at
science I thought you’d be good at arty
things
now let’s leave aside the gender
stereotypical assumption I think she
made their heart though that is though
was an aside if you have a daughter you
take it to Science Museum’s but this is
the moment when I first realize the
divide between the arts and science that
they must be kept separate some have
some mythical reason and how our
education system enforces that and
pushes you down one path or another and
I grew up resenting that fast forward
her prediction proves true my brother
continues to be good at science he did a
math degree I did an English one but if
he is after graduating I pick up a book
john kerry’s what good to the arts and I
read his argument that protein algebra
are in fact pretty similar they’re both
after a ball down truth and I start
thinking about my early love of the
sciences and scientific discovery and I
write a play about the first human
vivisections and a few years later I
realize that science and medical themes
are increasingly creeping into my work
and I start to question why I conclude
something quite Stark I passionately
believe in theater I believe in its
power to influence and change thought
and that changing thought can change
lives and society I believe in society I
also believe that if theater is to
continue to be relevant in the 21st
century then it has to engage with
scientific thought than any ethical
considerations arising from that why
well to explain we need to look what
theatres for and how it came to be when
humans first discovered fire this is a
potted history for here so bear with me
we sat around campfires and we told it
to the stories one voice then the chorus
came along gone we had essentially two
voices dialogue and then characters and
boom there it was
we now have film and telly and radio
drama but there is still something very
powerful about us all coming together
into one space so explore what it means
to be human
because I think that’s what theatre does
explore and it can be Hamlet banging on
about something or other or a comedy but
the currency
the same what it means to be alive and
how we navigate that and that hasn’t
really changed since we sat around the
fire except now now things are changing
for good or ill we’re stepping out of
natural evolution because of medical and
scientific advancement science used to
explain the world around us now it can
shape an influence both its analysis of
species in ways that are unprecedented
we can keep someone alive through organ
donation and blood transfusion we can
help infertile couples can see by our
IVF we can bioengineer glow-in-the-dark
monkeys using DNA collected from
jellyfish and we can grow human organs
on the backs of mice and we can
interfere in the human genetic code
we’ll soon be able to make designer
babies and in the UK it’s now legal for
a baby to be born with three genetic
parents the first British baby like this
will probably be born later this year
not think any of this is right or wrong
what I am saying is that if theater is
to continue asking questions about what
it means to be human we can’t ignore
these issues they’re too pressing so why
aren’t we seeing a glut of plays with
medical and scientific themes at their
heart why are we picking up Slough to
turn cards and moaning really a new play
about DNA sequencing again I think this
comes back to the education system the
presumption that for artists science is
hot the scientists a potential audience
for this work the arts or at least the
process behind them really means unknown
and the end process and result can’t be
quantified like a set of lab results so
as communities we rarely talk to each
other and it’s the public actual and
potential theatre goers you miss out
it’s exciting to have those
conversations though during a period of
research and development into play I’m
currently working on we invited a
science professor into the rehearsal
room the actors enthusiasm was off the
chart a real professor I mean a living
one and I’ve sudden smile so much as
when I read an email sent from a
scientist to a scientist about a query I
sent going actors theater people what’s
not to love but I think one of the
reasons we don’t have those
conversations is because it’s hard
algebra and poche you may have the same
pure heart but once written in words and
one in numbers we speak different
languages few years ago I co-produced a
front palace that Wales Millennium
Centre for the theatre company an agent
160 from palaces happens around the
country each year the idea is based on
the 1960s premise from playwright
genital woods and architect Cedric price
that there should be community hubs
where the arts and sciences come
together and everyone can participate we
staged a series of monologues in ours
and I wanted to write one about organ
donation which is the Welsh consent law
and that was just about to change
I like theater to be relevant and that
was about to affect roughly 3 million
people now I’m married to a medic and I
have a real aversion to mansplaining but
after a few days research on the
internet I walk into the kitchen as he’s
making tea and I say darling
I need you to explain to me how to cut
out the human heart he’s worrying the
use to this sort of query and he says
aha I have just the thing
logs onto website I’ve never seen before
with a look of real Glee hits print and
presents me with a step-by-step guide
for how to do just that so I got back in
together it slightly concerned that this
is what doctors do before they perform
operation I know I try to read what’s on
that piece of paper and I can’t
understand a word nothing so go back
into the kitchen and I say I need you to
explain to me how to cut out a human
heart he looks at me confused and I
realize we’re about to begin a process
of translating scientific language to
theatrical language I scribble all over
that piece of paper I write down what a
heart smells like what you’d see if you
were in the operating theatre I condense
parts of the operation a little I
perform a science to theatre vector
shift I’m currently working on a play
about sperm donation with a looming
theater in 2023 the first wave of
children conceived by a gamete donation
in this country will be able to trace
their genetic parents if
and only if they know they were
conceived that way this could affect
thousands of families each year what did
this law change mean for couples seeking
don’t gamuts now how will the child view
the donor their genetic siblings their
parents should they legally have to be
told they’re the donor like they are in
New Zealand what does all of this mean
for the family units how we view it how
we use that unit to construct society
we’re hardwired to explore social
questions through story we evolved that
way and as we continue to make
scientific discoveries which take charge
about individual survival and even our
evolution as a species I think we need
story more than ever we need to explore
what it means to be human in the 21st
century we need to come back to the fire
finally it’s a playwright it feels
really strange for me to be up here
giving you my words myself so I’ve asked
Nathalie pazi to revisit the piece
featuring organ donation she originally
performed at the center here’s an
abridged version of a mother’s heart
it starts with Rhys my son that’s where
my heart story starts we’re in a bus
shelter one just outside from Here I am
attacking his face with wet wipes when I
feel it my heart banging inside my chest
like a warnin I tried to ignore it but
it won’t stop the bus arrives early but
the driver says we can get on
I tell myself it’ll stop soon and I pay
I park Reese in the pushchair space I
breathe out in again five minutes before
we leave what is wrong with my heart I
go over some facts I learned from uni
repeat them like a prayer the human
heart beats a hundred thousand times a
day every day
it pushes 2,000 gallons of blood through
60,000 miles of blood vessels a woman’s
heart is 20% lighter than a man’s heart
a woman’s heart is smaller than a man’s
heart doctor who has two hearts who to
larger than female hearts I look at my
Claddagh ring I think of Daniel Reese’s
the SPECT of his dad a smaller heart
doesn’t love any less Reese points at
the door he wants to get out so I reach
into the pushchair basket for something
to distract him I glanced happened I see
him accelerating towards us he’s on a
motorbike he’s heading for the bus for
the window by me Andreessen my heart
it’s screaming at me it’s telling me to
I take the brake off the pushchair I
shove it down the bus and the bike hits
it’s my seat me truckin in pain my ribs
bacon I’m thrown to the right I fall on
my back I turned my head to look at the
pushchair
a woman is taking Reece out she looks at
me darkness my heart story is settling
into darkness well I don’t know why this
darkness is I try not to panic but I
need to become conscious how do I do but
Reese I need to be with Ricci he’s not
good with strangers you won’t settle
sirens I can hear sirens undone your
voices it’s calling my name again and
again it’s working I’m coming back on a
machine I can hear a machine it sounds
like the sea wait how darkness
oh the darkness no no this isn’t
right thing I need to be with Reese’s
always with me my heart wants to panic
but it can’t something is controlling it
my heart doesn’t beat like this love is
not robotic race sunlight
a hospital room oh well this feels
different I feel less branded I’m
standing next to a hospital bedroom with
two women doctors there’s a woman in the
bed unconscious she looks like a
washed-up jellyfish I want to go to her
but I can’t move my feet
why don’t they comfort her hold her hand
but they ignore me no they can’t hear me
darkness Reese Reese the way his skin
looked round and old when he was born
like like a treasure map waiting to be
and killed the same room the woman again
more people they’re taking blood have
you asked if you can do that have you
asked if you can do that today
takis what is the way he rubs ice cream
on his face from the cornice says he’s
doing his makeup his Bobbi Brown of the
way he’ll only fall asleep if I hold him
tightly next to me in his bed like we’re
in a ship’s cabin being tossed by the
waves a different room artificial liked
a woman the people are wearing masks and
the man stands over her he’s his
middle-aged portly takes out a knife
cuts through and a saw and he opens her
chest
he’s inside her chest he’s wriggling his
hands around like she’s his he takes out
her heart he looks at it curiously like
a child looking at something scooped
from a rock boom he holds it out over a
cool box and it slips away from him how
a woman’s left hand sticks out from
under the blue sheet she was a Claddagh
ring my Claddagh ring
I look at my heart I look at it and I
see I see one of them snaps the cool box
shut and runs up to the room like she’s
scared L wake up I close my eyes send
myself back to darkness I rest in it a
while I open them here because one day
Reece will come here and I will tell him
my heart is inside somebody else now but
it still beats for you when I looked in
the cool box my heart as the name Rhys
stumped through it like a stick of rock
you
[Applause]
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