Science in Drama

Abstract

THE need for men of science to appreciate the sociological consequences of their work, alongside the equally vital necessity for politicians to realise what science opens up in the field of social and industrial reconstruction, have often been stressed in these columns. It is, therefore, with much interest that we note the production at the Globe Theatre, London, of “Wings over Europe”, by Robert Nichols and Maurice Brown. The authors avail themselves of a legitimate poetic licence. A young and brilliant scientific worker with a rather simple sociological outlook discovers how to release the energy of the atom, and offers to present his discovery to the British cabinet, provided the cabinet will at once take such steps as should now be possible to eliminate poverty and reduce all work to the barest minimum. The confusion and despair of a cabinet of men ignorant of the elements of science and wedded to traditions that are now doomed is well portrayed, if rather exaggerated. That such a theme can find its place successfully on a London stage is significant of the fact that the importance of science as an unconscious revolutionary factor in society is beginning to be appreciated.