Mathematics of the Heart

Tuesday, 7 February 2012 - Saturday, 3 March 2012

Theatre 503, 503 Battersea Park Road, Battersea, SW11 3BW

How Much: £14.00 (Highest Price) , £9.00 (Lowest Price)

Straight-laced lecturer Paul, his practical girlfriend Emma, bubbly student Zainab and his reckless brother Chancer all find themselves under the same roof a month after the death of Paul's father, the great mathematician John McMillan. 

Writer Kefi Chadwick extends John's shadow into the lives of her characters exposing each of their vulnerabilities. But in this metaphor-laden mille feuille of a play, the layers line up too neatly so that the complicated worlds of mathematics and love are over-explained and become too simplistic to the point that the characters themselves seem tired of the parallels. 

But the main parallel is beautifully laid out, perfectly acted and at times heart-breaking. For Emma, her boyfriend's grief triggers memories of her mother's death, her father's absence and the lack of commitment and consideration she receives from the kindly but clueless Paul. Their relationship is something that he calculates and she plans but is invaded by this unpredictable, irrational sense of loss and questions of identity. To her credit, Chadwick does a superb job of making Paul and Emma's relationship as significant as Paul and Chancer's relationship with their dad but she does such a good job that everything else, including the annoying Zainab seem unnecessary. 

Naima Khan