The Aesthetics of Mathematics in the Physical Theatre

This chapter explores the representations and functions of aesthetics of mathematics in theatre, focusing on Complicité theatre company’s A Disappearing Number (2008). First, it surveys plays that deal with mathematics, asserting that mathematics is portrayed as an aesthetic field and its beauty is represented as a desired experience. Yet, playwrights avoid putting straightforward mathematics onstage and do not enable aesthetic experiences of mathematics. The chapter then analyses the manner by which Complicité calls attention to known aesthetic features of mathematical concepts and practices, employing these features to depict and produce emotions. The physical techniques in Complicité’s devising process enable explication of mathematical conceptualisations, allowing a re-evaluation of their aesthetics. The chapter focuses on theatrical metaphors that associate mathematical concepts with bodily experiences, analysing them through Lakoff and Núñez’s (2000) theory of embodied mathematics which connects abstract concepts with sensory perception. The chapter concludes that, in these metaphors, mathematics invokes an aesthetic experience precisely because it is comprehended by human minds through physical aspects such as space and movement, rather than as an absolute abstraction. These reactions are utilised in the show itself, and thus the mathematical concepts do not simply describe emotions but participate in producing them.