The Principle of Uncertainty[author-post-rating] (3/5)

The only thing we can be certain of is that we can’t be certain of anything. The fundamental principle of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle is that by measuring something at a quantum level, we have an impact on its behaviour and thus cannot be certain of results. In The Principle of Uncertainty, Andrea Brunello’s performance lecture, we get taught all we need to know about quantum physics, but the attempt to humanise the subject falls a little flat and the event lacks a sense of performance.

The lecture itself is well written and explains the principles well, using two projectors and simple line drawings. It’s delivered by Brunello, whose character claims he does not know much about the subject. The character plays with coins in his pockets and a ribbon round his neck throughout, a slightly shaggy Brian Cox figure unaware quite how to deliver a lecture. Slightly too late in the proceedings, his wife and daughter enter the story, allowing some emotion to seep through, but it’s too little too late.

My major problem with the show is that it doesn’t quite find a way to theatricalise the language of science, and doesn’t quite blend the performance elements with the factual elements to help us understand the issue of uncertainty. Sometimes it feels like they could to with taking note from the Royal Institute Christmas Lecturers, which manage to engage audiences and create a spectacle of science.

Nonetheless, it does manage to capture an imagination even if it doesn’t make us feel something new. Musical interludes played on guitar by Enrico Merlin break up the performance and find a way of aurally representing this chaos. The Principle of Uncertainty manages to portray some of the fundamental principles of science – knowledge, wonder and questioning – but doesn’t quite manage to give us the tools to carry this on in our own lives.

The Principle of Uncertainty is at Summerhall until 25 August. For more information and tickets visit the Edinburgh Fringe website.