The Square Root of a Sonnet : The Strange History of Black Holes

ABOUT THE PLAY

In the summer of 1930, a nineteen-year-old Indian boy formulated the fundamental equations that govern the ultimate fate of the stars in our Universe. To his surprise, they indicated that certain stars were destined to collapse into nothingness and become those mysterious objects that we now call black holes. The boy’s name was Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, the brilliant Indian-American astrophysicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1983. But Chandra’s extraordinary discovery of collapsing stars was suppressed as soon as it was made. And the person responsible for this was Chandra’s own mentor and guru – Sir Arthur Eddington, Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University and the foremost astrophysicist of the age. Why did Eddington try to destroy Chandra? For a man renowned for his dispassionate commitment to science, Eddington’s actions have been a long-standing mystery in the annals of science. The play attempts to answer this question through an exploration of the intriguing and complex relationship between two giants of modern astrophysics – Chandra and Eddington. Based on true incidents, this is a story of ambition, friendship and betrayal set against the backdrop of the epoch-making events of the twentieth century – the two world wars, the Indian freedom struggle and above all, the birth of the strange new sciences of relativity and quantum mechanics.

Suitable for 14+ yrs

CAST AND CREW

Cast:  Nilanjan P. Choudhury, Swati De, Sal Yusuf , Shonali Chandy Chinniah 

Crew: Arun Murthy, Nikhil Bharadwaj, Sumedha Choudhury

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

The author wishes to acknowledge three works, which have been important sources of information and inspiration for this play. These are "Empire of the Stars" by Arthur I Miller, "Chandra: The Biography of S. Chandrasekhar" by Kameshwar Wali and "Copenhagen", the play by Michael Frayn.

ABOUT CENTRE FOR FILM & DRAMA (CFD):

CFD India, one of Bangalore's leading theatre companies, was established in 2004 as an integrated production and training centre for cinema, television and dramatic arts by Prakash Belawadi. Since then, CFD has trained students in film making and acting, organised screenings and seminars, produced content for cinema and TV, and has staged several acclaimed theatre productions like Copenhagen, Translations, Gora, Parva , Turnaround and many others

PRAISE FOR THE PLAY 

"Original...entertaining... outstanding ! Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal

"A refreshing celebration of the actual achievements of an Indian scientist." - Naseeruddin Shah

"Excellent !” – The Telegraph

“A winner ! ” – The Hindu

“Top marks !” – The Week