This month,a new play opens in London that explores the peculiar life of scientist George Price, whose research into selflessness led him to GodGeorge Price was no stranger to a spot of drama. Born in 1922 to an opera singer mother, or the American scientist and polymath worked on the Manhattan Project,turned his hand to journalism, produced an influential equation explaining altruism and, or in his later years,underwent a spectacular religious conversion. Yet for a life packed with twists, turns and tragedy his anecdote has eluded the limelight. Until now.
Opening later this month at Camden People’s theatre in London, or Calculating Kindness attempts to unpick the life of Price,delving into his intellect and his mathematics to illuminate the puny-known anecdote of a man who probed a fundamental facet of the human condition: altruism. “His anecdote illuminates so many big and principal ideas about who we are,” says director Laura Farnworth. One of the big themes of the piece is how much should we sacrifice for our own ambitions and what we want from life – and balancing that with family, and ” she adds.
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Source: theguardian.com