Coinciding with the 200th Birth Anniversary of the English naturalist Charles Darwin, and the 150th anniversary since the publication of his book "The origin of species", the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) Theatre Group will be performing a dramatised reading of the piece "After Darwin", tomorrow Thursday, 19th of March, at 17.00 hours at the PCB's Fèlix Serratosa Hall (Baildiri Reixac, 10) . The play, written by US-born writter, Timberlaker Wertenbaker, who now lives in London permanently– will feature the acting talents of Isabel Usón, Xavier Gomis-Rüth, Jesús Purroy, Xavier Carpena and Celerino Abad-Zapatero.

This is a free-admission event that has been promoted by the Automated Crystallography Platform (PAC) at the PCB, in view of the tremendous success achieved last year with the scenification of conversations between crystallographic John D. Bernal and Pablo Picasso, which was also featured at PCB. On that occasion, the event featured the reading of the original version of a script by Celerino Abad-Zapatero , associate professor at the University of Illinois, who wrote the anecdotes that emerged from that evening.

“After Darwin” –published in 1991– embraces within on single theatrical piece two stories that intercross at very different chronological time periods, with the objective of inviting the reader to reflect on the nature of human relations, the interpretation of the past, and the links between science and religion. On the one hand, and set at the present time, Millie, a theatre director, discusses with her actors –Ian and Tom– how to act the character of two famous historical figures from the XIX century: Charles Darwin and Robert Fitzroy. Ian and Tom play the parts of Captain Robert Fitzroy and Charles Darwin, respectively, who are travelling aboard the “Beagle”, captain Fitzroy’s vessel, in waters close to the South American coastline. Their five-year long journey is replete with personal and philosophical tensions. Fitzroy, a Christian academic, has blind faith in the unquestionable authority of the Bible, whilst Darwin starts to explore a more radical vision, his theory of natural selection.

Timberlake Wertenbaker is one of the most interesting contemporary English theatre voices. She was born in 1944 in New York (USA) and spent her childhood at the French Basque Country. Sometime later she went back to the US to study. Ms Wertenbaker worked as a journalist in London and New York, and as a French teacher in Greece before she gained the post of resident writer at the Royal Court Theatre of London, where she settled down. Wertenbaker is also a renowned translator. In1991 she translated three Sophocles pieces for the Royal Shakespeare Company.