A hotel bar in Geneva, the night before the Large Hadron Collider is switched on. A woman walks up to a man. She's a journalist, trying to write a career-defining article, and he is a scientist, still reeling from a recent loss. What could have an obvious ending, turns into a story of two people’s worlds colliding for a brief, yet life-changing moment.
Directed by 2023 Genesis Future Directors Award recipient, Andrea Ling, and written by the award-winning Tom Morton-Smith (My Neighbour Totoro, Oppenheimer at the RSC), The Earthworks is a moving and hilarious exploration into carrying the weight of grief and knowing when it’s time to let go.
Natalie Dew (Clare), Mark Edel-Hunt (Fritjof) / photo by Laima Arlauskaite / Young Vic 2024
Natalie Dew (Clare) / photo by Laima Arlauskaite / Young Vic 2024
“Morton-Smith is best known for the epic Oppenheimer, but this small, often funny play focusing on two fragile people rubbing up against each other at a moment of change has its own quiet heroism. What appears to be a romantic comedy turns into something more unsettling ... raising questions about the limits of knowledge and our capacity to face up to the future. Oh, and who wouldn’t love a play that uses a custard fight to explain mass?”
“This is small-scale and delicate ... a late-night encounter between a journalist and a scientist in a Geneva hotel on the eve of the activation of the Large Hadron Collider. All the grandest ideas in the world are about [to] come into play there, but Morton-Smith reminds us that it’s the most intimate human connections that have the greatest impact. ★★★★”
Lena Kaur as Clare and Thomas Magnusson as Fritjof / photo by Topher McGrillis / RSC 2017
PRODUCTION HISTORY
First performed at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, as part of the Mischief Festival, 24th May to June 17th 2017. Royal Shakespeare Company, dir: Erica Whyman.
Young Vic Theatre, London, 26th March to 6th April 2024. dir: Andrea Ling, winner of the Genesis Future Directors award.