In Through the Out Door:
Dramatic Scientists Explore Individual Freedom

Imperial Fringe Theatre - a newly formed company bringing together professional actors and scientifically qualified academics  - opens with its first production at Imperial College this January (4th-5th and 14th-15th 1998). In their   first production, these thespian engineers, (in a breed not famed for their individuality or imagination) endeavour to explore issues of individual freedom in a play bringing together the dramatic silences of Pinter, the existentialism of  Sartre and the EastEnd charm of Keefe.

Award winning producer/director Dr Caroline Baillie, materials scientist and education developer at Imperial, is embarking on a series of innovative projects mixing dark psychology with scientific insight, in an effort to “explore the innovative use of space, sound and movement”.

 The company’s first production “In through the Out Door”, comprises three plays:  “Gotcha” by Keefe, which revisits the 70s to explore the story of a comprehensive school boy failed by the system; “One for the Road” by Pinter presents a dissident family beaten into submission by a police state, and “No Way Out” by Sartre (translated by Frank Hauser), concerns life after death in monotonous company.

 In through the Out Door is only the first of a series of projects. Embodying science with a mission and a social conscience, the group plans a number of plays in the new year.

 A British Association/Royal Society Millennium Award will be used to present science to local schools in the form of “Dr Concept Detective”, the story of a female engineer in search of the scientific truth about her girlfriend’s son’s death in an untimely motorcycle accident.

 The Committee on the Public Understanding of Science will fund “Mrs Mac and the Art of  Rhythm” to be presented at Imperial during National Science Week in March 1998. This is the story of Aussie Scientist and Engineer Florence Mackensie. Mrs Mac OBE, plainly a woman of substance, started the WRANS, convinced the Australian Government that women could take an active part in the war effort, was first the female radio ham , and, while engaged in research on Morse code, discovered that women have a better sense of rhythm (Kylie Minogue excepted).

 In the tradition of Mrs Mac, the music for In Through The Out Door is being produced in Sydney, Australia and Soho via the internet by Solange Kershaw, an acoustics engineer and theatre composer. Baillie and members of the cast are available for interview. Full details of the company and productions, as well as booking details are available on the website, or from Caroline Baillie.