Mathematics is a tool for understanding how things work. The slightest difference triggers the crisis of Maduri Shekar’s exaggerated and data-rich new “Queen” at the ART / New York Mezzanine Theater on Tuesday night. Hair width deviations overturn not only the results of years of research, but also how a team of scientists think of themselves and the purpose of life.
The title refers to the matriarchal honeybee, where population decline is a problem the group of researchers is trying to solve. We are at the University of California, Santa Cruz. There are two hard-working PhDs. Candidates designed a study to identify pesticides as the main cause of what is known as “colony collapse disorder” or thinning of bees. Their reputation and the future of pollination depend on their success.
Ecologist and single mother Ariel (Stephanie Janssen) risked making a living to defeat a chemical conglomerate who broke up with ex-boyfriend to carry out the project and accused the beekeeper of going out of business. Sanam (Avanthika Srinivasan) is a meticulous mathematician from India, whose wealthy her parents set her up with her suitor, who considers it a threat to her ambitions. I’m continuing. (“If you have a gay husband who is willing to leave me alone, think of everything I can accomplish!” She says.’Discover and reap most of the glory.
Sanam’s latest mismatched blind date, Irvind (Keshaf Moudria), is a Wall Street analyst with a surplus of smarms, at least empowering her statistical dilemma with some brain power. Their nasty first meeting leads to a midnight breakthrough in the lab (but not an interesting business). This further reveals the mathematical impasse that hinders the project, if not the physics intended to move the story forward.
The play details the investigation and potential failures that lead to unexpected results in the first half of the 105-minute run time. The orderly details are positioned as a compelling revelation. Terminology dominates the debate about the process and crowds the welcoming moments of direct connections between characters. All characters are fueled by a presumption of greatness. It throws competition and little jealousy — between others in the field and them — and it’s hard to find a foothold for sympathy. By the time the relationship between a colleague and a lover becomes the ultimate focus, they lack substantive evidence that makes them feel compelling.
Ariel and Sanam are driven by the desire to extraordinarily prove themselves that they may be able to save the world through their intellect. Maybe it’s an essential delusion at the heart of many academic companies, but the blocked ego alone isn’t a particularly dramatic bet. (Also, despite their essential role in food supply, we do not have the invisible death of insects conditioned to find annoyance.)
The work directed by Anisha Kuttarkar for the National Asian-American Theater Company is smooth and compact. Honeycomb-shaped glass desks occupy much of the black box stage in this set design by Georgia Lee Jonghyun, limiting playgrounds around it. There is a clean variety of staging that suggests the efficiency of clinical exercise, even if it is not particularly expressive and aesthetic.
The “Queen” raises nasty questions about ethical, honesty, and inaccuracies in deciding what is genuine. However, fascination with the empirical core comes at the expense of deeper personality development and emotional resonance. Why bees? Why not bees — if we could reveal something important about who we are by observing scientists trying to save them. But the conclusions drawn by the “Queen” are more theoretical than embodied. You need more blood than your intellect to feel a puncture wound.
Queen
Until July 1st at ART / New York Mezzanine Theater in Manhattan. naatco.org.. Execution time: 1 hour and 45 minutes.