Humble Boy By Charlotte Jones

Felix Humble, bumbling Cambridge astrophysicist and cricket enthusiast, returns to the family home following the sudden death of his father. Flora, his difficult and demanding mother is determined to make a fresh start with George, a brash family friend. Secrets come tumbling out as Felix tries to come to terms with the past and what is yet to come.

Threads such as Hamlet, horticulture, black holes and beekeeping are woven into this warm and touching comedy which was first performed at the National Theatre in 2001 - winning the Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best New Play and the People's Choice Best New Play Award.

Charlotte Jones is hailed by many as the natural successor to both Stoppard and Ayckbourn for her intelligent and richly comic scripts. Oxford Theatre Guild has a long history of performing to both audience and critical acclaim at the Playhouse.

'This is a marvellous play: harsh and forgiving: sad, very sad; funny, very, very funny...a feast.' Sunday Times

Friday, 28 January 2011

Quantum Leap - Humble Boy and Science

One of the intriguing things about Humble Boy as a play is the way Charlotte Jones has incorporated a lot of science into the text.  Our central character, Felix Humble, is a researcher into the complex field of astrophysics.


For most of us, things like M-Theory, Superstrings and the quantum theory of gravity are complete unknowns - for Felix, they are at the centre of his life.

In order to get to grips with this part of the play, I thought a bit of research was necessary - and so I turned to one of my favourite Radio 4 programmes - In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg.  Over the years, this has covered a whole range of topics - but two episodes could have been written for Felix - so I thought I would share the links, just in case people wanted to explore a little of this fascinating world:

Grand Unified Theory: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00546nx

Quantum Gravity: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547c4

Thanks to the wonderful iPlayer, you can catch up with these amazingly accessible introductions to the world that Felix loves so much.
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