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New Science, inspired by 18th century Neapolitan philosopher Giambattista Vico, takes on the themes of the rise and fall of civilizations, humanity’s earliest origins, and the science of the imagination. Part-comedy, part-tragedy, 100% scientific experiment.

Giambattista Vico’s (1668-1744) masterwork, Nuova Scienza, influenced authors as diverse as Karl Marx and James Joyce. Vico postulates, “In the night of thick darkness enveloping the earliest antiquity, so remote from ourselves, there shines the eternal and never failing light of a truth beyond all question: that the world of civil society has certainly been made by [humans], and that its principles are therefore to be found within the modifications of our own human mind.” Vico goes on to apply his new science using the two distinctive features of human nature: fantasia (imagination) and reflessione (reflection).

The New Science team has been working together in various configurations for 20+ years. Martin Reckhaus and Jessica Slote started out in the Alchemical Theater (from Artaud’s Theater and Its Double), founded by Living Theater actors Mary Krapf and Carlo Altomare in NYC in the early 1980s. In addition to their seminal production of Artaud’s There is No More Firmament, the Alchemical Theater created plays based on the writing of Paul Virilio and Maurice Blanchot. The Living Theater presented the Reckhaus/Jandova production of Walter Hasenclever’s Expressionist play, Humanity, which received critical acclaim in the New York Times.

Photography by John Ranard

Director Martin Reckhaus and designer Gary Brackett orchestrate the mise en scène, working with an original text by Jessica Slote. The creative team also includes composer Patrick Grant who contributes an original score. Masks and props designed and created by Pamela Mayo. Directing assistant: Victoria Barbiani.

The cast of New Science includes Obie-award-winning actress Sheila Dabney, theater veterans Pamela Mayo, Thomas S. Walker, and Johnson Anthony, and newcomer Claire Lebowitz. Also featured are mezzo-soprano Adela María Bolet and musician Naisha Walton (upright bass).

DIVINITY:

The MORTALS are rushing with a maddened pace and absorbed looks on their faces. At every second every step at every streetcorner they are making decisions, choices....

In ten million simultaneous trajectories, in ten million simultaneous cities across the world, The MORTALS are speeding into the future—driven by their cars, jets, biological imperatives, fears, and desires.....

excerpt from New Science

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