Question: What sort of audience would you play be aimed at? Would it be educational and for kids or more for adults?

Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 11 Mar 2014:

The play would be aimed at adults and secondary school kids – not young kids. It is educational because it teaches some history of science and shows non-scientists a bit about the mechanism by which different theories get considered and accepted. It’s also educational about mental health because the hero, Ludwig Boltzmann, was an undiagnosed manic-depressant, which means he had wild, uncontrollable mood swings. I’m hoping it’s entertaining to watch!

Here is a little extract:

Boltzmann: It is not possible to find a theory free of its creator: even yours, Mach, show your positivist stamp upon them.

Mach [standing]: Excuse me! What did you say to me?

Boltzmann [rising also]: Your eyes and your ears observe your experiments, do they not? Or do you deny that too?

Scientist 1: Gentlemen, please!

Mach: Yes, yes, I observe, but I restrain my theories to summaries of experiments – and use them only to make complex data understandable. A theory can be formulated from mere observation – and that is the proper and the honest way.