I’d never heard of the Science Fiction Theater Company, but a friend who’s not an SF fan emailed me and said I should see The Singularity, because it’s witty and wonderful. So with my wife and daughter I went—and we loved it! The play, by Crystal Jackson, is about Astrid, a woman who’s on her last egg, and who wants a baby so badly she inseminates herself with stolen dark matter and a turkey baster before she loses her chance. It’s hilarious, partly because Astrid is the closest thing to a normal person in the play, and she gets to act the straight man to all the loonies. Kathy-Ann Hart does a wonderful job with the part, as do all the other actors.
Never mind the part about dark matter; it’s just a MacGuffin. Neither the playwright nor the one reviewer I read showed any understanding of what dark matter is. But what the hey, scientists don’t know, either. The title was a mystery to me until the very end—which I should warn you, comes rather abruptly, perhaps a little too abruptly. The reference is not to the transhumanist technological singularity that’s become a central concept in a lot of recent science fiction, but rather to the singularity that might or might not have come before the Big Bang.
Anyway, if you’re in Boston, the show has one more weekend to play. Tickets here.
Jessica Mink
I saw "The Singularity" on its last Thursday and enjoyed it thoroughly. It's as much a dark comedy about post-modern American medicine as about singularities and dark matter (about which the descriptions are a bit more accurate than the way they are actually used), and the acting and scenic design were fun to watch. Sitting in the front, I enjoyed the copy of "Skunk" sitting next to the other pet magazines in thewaiting room of the cut-rate medical office which formerly was a veterinary clinic.
Jeffrey A. Carver
Hah! I missed the Skunk magazine! A nice touch.