THEATRE REVIEW: Big Bang!, Eleanor Rathbone Theatre

Sep 9 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

THE BA Festival of Science is awash with talks and shows giving an unusual twist to what can be perceived as a dry subject. But . . . a musical about physics?

Big Bang! shows it is possible to combine the two, with surprisingly entertaining results.

The show, written by Dominic Dickson, a reader in physics at Liverpool University, and musician Phil Freeman, has been performed in Liverpool before but has come back bigger and bolder for the science festival and Capital of Culture year, performed by a cast of final-year Liverpool Theatre School students.

The story is based around two young students, Anna and Jay, their fledgling relationship and their dreams of science careers after university. So far so straightforward, until the intervention of the "space-time retirement home", and residents Einstein, Marie Curie, Issac Newton and Galileo.

Anna has bright ideas, while Jay just wants to get to the top. Fast forward 20 years, and she is the gentle brains behind his arrogant corporation developing methods of nuclear fusion – but who will win the Nobel Prize?

With disarmingly funny performances from the four historical figures travelling the space-time continuum, a knowing wit pervading the script and some catchy numbers, it was hard not to smile all the way through the second half.

Aimed at young people, as the show begins there’s a bit of a "programmes for school" feel to it and the clunky dialogue comes across like Dawson’s Creek meets the Open University.

But once the cast hit their stride they showed a collective enthusiasm and energy that was nothing but completely infectious. Making it all look easy was Natalie Russo as the all-knowing, flamboyant Marie Curie, and Abbie Law Briggs, playing a ham actress playing the male role of Galileo, added further comic dimension to the script. Another remarkable all-rounder was James Lacey as Jay, who was inherently watchable as he transformed from cocky student to arrogant businessman.

BIG Bang! is on until September 12.