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Science, science fiction, and Nick Payne’s Elegy: a conceptual third way

ABSTRACT The depiction of science in theatre has been widely acknowledged and debated, while discussion of science fiction in theatre remains limited. Specifically, plays which draw upon the practices of both sciences fact and fiction are typically viewed as examples of the former, with the latter’s influence elided. Nick Payne’s Elegy interrogates the evolution of medical treatment into the prevention of neurological diseases, depicting a future society where such disorders can be surgically cured. The play creatively expands upon modern scientific knowledge to imagine this future world, using a science-fictional lens to engage with current ethical stances regarding life, death and the line between both. However, critical reaction to the play focused predominantly on Elegy’s apparently factual foundations, as opposed to its combination of imagined and scientific aspects. This paper aims to encourage a more nuanced view of science fiction, and its relationship to science, in theatre. By placing Elegy in conversation with science fiction scholarship, and by drawing comparisons with specific areas of current scientific research in which charges of science-fictionality have encouraged engagement and funding opportunities, I propose a template for how theatre-makers and scholars can recognise the role that science fiction plays within contemporary performance.