HORROX - AT THE ADC
‘History is one damned thing after another’. Whoever said that had a point and it’s a huge challenge for anyone writing a play about history. Shakespeare of course was the master but it is a slippery genre. Is it a history lesson or a play? Even the greats can get it wrong – I’m thinking of Stoppard’s overlong, tedious and confusing ‘Leopoldstadt’. So it was with keen interest that I approached a history play set here in 17th century Cambridge.
‘Horrox’ is a brand-new play by local writer David Sear and directed by Lesley Ford of Corkscrew Theatre. It is in fact two plays rolled into one: the story of Jeremiah Horrocks (I will explain the spelling change later), a young Cambridge student obsessed with astronomy who died young but correctly predicted for the first time, a transit of Venus. The other narrative is that of Johannes Kepler, the German mathematician who pioneered the study of planetary motion. Horrox (for that was his Latinised name at Emmanuel College) is an unknown genius, Kepler a recognised one whose life’s work is his revolutionary star tables. But he has to contend with the power, ignorance and hostility of the powers-that-were: the Holy Roman Emperors peering over their lavish ruffs in Prague. Kepler is unpaid and walks a delicate astral tightrope by denying the teachings of the Church that the sun orbits the Earth. The young Horrox faces similar travails with his conservative Cambridge tutors. His hunger for books on astronomy is unquenched by the limited number of volumes in college libraries. Theology is the thing not stargazing.
ALL IMAGES: PAUL ASHLEY
So here are two stories that like orbiting bodies should attract each other. And indeed Sear’s play continually alternates between Horrox’s college student world and Kepler’s Habsburg court. The problem is that there is an awful lot of history to get through in these two stories. Kepler alone works through at least three Emperors each of whom only wish to admire his skills as an astrologer, a fortune teller who never makes a fortune. We are told about, but never see, his problems at home with difficult wives and lots of noisy kids. Similarly Horrox’s Puritan family don’t seem too keen on his starry-eyed obsessions. But again we never see them.
The scenes between Kepler (a fine performance from David John) and his masters though wordy were fascinating and well done. Kepler has to negotiate not only his dangerous Inquisitorial superiors but tigers and other wild cats roaming the palace. That said there is no sense that his life is in danger – the only real jeopardy is a lack of cash.
The Cambridge (or on the road to here) scenes between Horrox (Luke Malone) and his undergrad friends were less convincing. Malone played the part with immense energy and gusto – like a comet flashing across the skies. But that often meant a loss of clarity and diction. Also the writing rarely allowed us to observe his inner star map. What was driving this young man? History often tells us what and how but not always why. That’s the job of a play.
On the plus side, the projected sun, moon and transit of Venus images were stunning and provided a strong touch of magic theatre. The acting in the Kepler scenes, was commanding with Rory Lowings making a convincingly unhinged Rudolph II. There were laugh-out loud lines and many worthy set pieces. The play did come especially alive towards the end when Horrox and his fellow obsessive Crabtree (William Males) race against time to observe the correctly predicted transit of the planet Venus across the face of the sun. It was powerfully done. The Story of Jeremiah Horrocks is one that deserves to be told and Sears has done a good job in bringing this forgotten local hero to our attention. My problem with this new play was the focus on the facts rather than interplay of character, the dilemmas of human life. History really is one damned thing after another but in the theatre, it doesn’t have to be.
