Edinburgh Festivals

Fringe 2001

The Whole Shebang
Jack Klaff

This highly energetic one-man show tightly packs together a range of thought-provoking ideas, one-liners and characters into just over an hour.

With a CV that includes authorship of 'Bluffing your way in the Quantum Universe' and a minor part in 'Star Wars', Jack Klaff bravely straddles the intellectual divide between the arts and science in an attempt to communicate the complexity and wonder of scientific ideas to his audiences.

Here he describes his experience as the invited Professor of Public Understanding of Science at the Starlab in Brussels, a super scientific thinktank dreamt up by a wealthy philanthropist with high ideals about genius and the possibility of humanity. Klaff's tone is highly conversational ('I wish we could be having supper together instead' he tells the audience). Yet, while he is light-hearted in his digressions, Klaff remains purposeful and erudite throughout.

His job at Starlab is to be the communicator, the story-teller, the linguistic mediary between the complex world of science and the greater public. At this point in the show, I predicted a typical 'arts vs science war' that is all too typical these days. How many times have writers like Jeanette Winterson criticised scientists for being crudely utilitiarian or antisocial beings? But I was pleasantly surprised as this portrayal of scientists was put to rest by Klaff. Instead he presents us with extraordinarily moving and admirable characters.

Klaff hurriedly conveys the excitement he feels when he meets the world's top scientists and the heated discussions that arise from the encounter. He challenges and learns from his scientists on subjects as difficult as quantum and atomic physics, GM foods and stem cell research, illustrating that we need a climate where stimulating debate about knowledge is not stifled but encouraged.

Klaff grapples with the contemporary postmodern tendency to view the world in fragments, concluding that it is still worth trying to understand Truth and that what science and art can do is cause us to rethink and reimagine the world. Comically, the scientists complain when their theories like 'chaos' and the uncertainty principle are used as prisms through which to understand all social phenomena, from Diana's death to Marxism.

Like himself, Klaff shows that these scientists seek out a more complex Truth, a higher understanding that does not rely purely on empirical data but also on our subjectivity. For instance, how can consciousness be explained by neurones and chemical processes? What of our emotions, our history, the being of Man? Klaff's show defends the human quest to explain 'the whole shebang'. As one of the aged scientists he meets pronounces to him: 'The Truth does not oppress you, that is what science is for. Lies oppress you'.

With great ease and humour, Klaff slips between characters and performs fast-moving dialogue to keep the pace taut. Blending his knowledge of literature and art with science gives a thrilling ride. Questions are left unanswered and indeed, by the end of the show, you rather wish you were having supper with him and continuing the conversation (or even argument).

The Scotsman Assembly