Reader Reviews
A Disappearing Number (Barbican Centre, West End)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | If you strip away all the mathematical and physics theorising A Disappearing Number is really no more than a sketchy biography of Ramanujan, a modern day story of a relationship, with a little bit about the modernising of the Indian economy thrown in. The constant shifts between place and time are clumsy and confusing but the cast manage to rise above some fiendishly complicated dialogue. I am becoming increasingly weary of plays and writers who try to prove how brilliantly academic they are, in this case at the expense of a compelling narrative. Last year this play swept many of the awards but I wonder how much of that was because the critics couldn't admit that it was actually pretentious and shallow. A Disappearing Number is like the Emperor's New Clothes - look closely and there's nothing of substance there. - David Baxter | 30 Oct 08 |
| a failed attempt to hide corny dialogue, cliched characters, clunky storytelling and a confusing mish-mash of undigested ideas with expensive over-production.. - fred | 22 Oct 08 |
| Brilliant use of cutting-edge technology to create riveting theatre: the true story of an Indian mathematical genius whisked across continents to Cambridge in the early 1900s, plunged like Eliza Doolittle into an alien culture, in parallel with a 21st-century romance. - C. J. Verburg | 23 Aug 08 |
