A Disappearing Number - An English Play By Simon McBurney

Mathematics, life, the tabla, abstraction. Indeed, this one is a treat for those who want to pamper their grey cells.

Under the aegis of the International Congress Of Mathematicians 2010, A Disappearing Number, a 2007 play co-written and devised by the Complicite Company (London), will be staged on 21st & 22nd August, at the Global Peace Auditorium (Brahma Kumari's Shanthi Sarovar, Gachibowli).

A Disappearing Number was directed and conceived by English playwright Simon McBurney. The cast of the play includes Shane Shambhu, David Annen, Firdous Bamji, Paul Bhattacharjee, Hiren Chate, Divya Kasturi, Chetna Pandya and Saskia Reeves.

A Disappearing Number was inspired by the collaboration during the 1910s between 2 of the most remarkable pure mathematicians of the 20th century, Srinivasa Ramanujan, a poor Brahmin from South India, and Cambridge University don G H Hardy.

The play includes live tabla playing, which morphs into pure mathematics. Ramanujan first attracted Hardy's attention by proving that the sum 1 + 2 + 3 + .... would equal minus one-twelfth. Hardy realised that this confusing presentation was an application of the Riemann zeta function with s= -1.

The play has two strands of narrative - the deep intellectual relationship between Hardy and Ramanujan, with the present-day story of a globe-trotting Indian-American businessman and his maths lecturer partner.

The lady travels to India in Ramanujan's footsteps, and eventually dies. He follows, to get closer to her ghost. Meanwhile, 100 years ago, Ramanujan is travelling in the opposite direction, making the trip to England that eventually kills him. Partition (as a maths concept) is paralleled appositely with the partition of India and Pakistan, and diverging and converging series in mathematics become a metaphor for the Indian diaspora.

Tickets are priced at Rs. 1,200 / Rs. 800 / Rs. 500 / Rs. 300 / Rs. 200 per head. Please contact the venue 2300-1234 for further details,