Interview: Alan Gill of EMILIE: LA MARQUISE DU CHATELET DEFENDS HER LIFE TONIGHT at Subiaco Arts Centre

You may have heard of Emilie, La Marquise du Chatelet who lived from 1706 to 1749. Chances are, however, you haven't heard of her. Whilst she made significant contributions to science and philosophy, she is most well known simply for being Voltaire's lover. Anatomical Heart Productions are seeking to change Emilie's place in history by staging EMILIE: LA MARQUISE DU CHATELET DEFENDS HER LIFE TONIGHT at Subiaco Arts Centre. Playing Voltaire is Alan Gill, who took the time to talk about science and history, as well as Anatomical Heart Productions.

If appearing in most shows, Voltaire would be an almost larger than life character, being a famous philosopher and writer who remains well known over 200 years later. That, however is definitely not the case in EMILIE.

"I'm glad not to be the center of attention," said Alan Gill. "It sounds cliché, but so much of history is HIS story. What struck me about this play is that it's telling another part of the story, which in this case it's a part of the story that really needs to be told. The whole piece is from Emilie's point-of-view, so we've spent a fair bit of time going through how myself and the other characters play their parts. I'm not playing Voltaire, I'm playing Voltaire as Emilie remembers him. We had to consider how history sees Voltaire against how Emilie would see Voltaire." Part of the creative process for this involved defining how Emilie would see the people in her life. Whereas most plays allow the characters some freedom to define their own roles and stories, EMILIE is about her view of people in her life, which has led to a slightly unusual production process.

"Usually I'd make notes and do research into a historical character to guide how I play them, but in this case there's also a lot of collaboration. The script has some guidance, but there's also been a lot of talk in rehearsals to see how Kate [O'Sullivan, who plays Emilie] imagines how Emilie would see these people in her life, then working from there. Emilie is very much the focal point and we're just being the characters as she would remember them, so we have to ensure we're all on the same page."

It is the fact Emilie's contribution to the world is obscured by the company she kept that inspired Anatomical Heart to take the show on in the first place.

"It combines two of my passions. Well three passions, really. I am very much into science and science communication and I'm lucky enough to have worked in that area. I'm passionate about theatre obviously, but I also love finding these untold stories of history. To be able to tell this story in theatre has been a very enjoyable experience so far, but it's also very meaningful to me and everyone involved." The cast and crew then set about finding out just how known or unknown Emilie is.

"When we began, we had a few encyclopedias we were using for the set, so we looked at how much attention they pay to Emilie. In the first one we found, all she had was one paragraph in the two-and-a-half pages that Voltaire took up. I think it understates her even to say she was only a paragraph in Voltaire's two-and-a-half page life, but she definitely made a much broader contribution to science and society." The cast and crew did eventually find an encyclopedia with a separate heading for Emilie. "It said; 'Du Chatelet, Emilie. See: Voltaire," Gill noted rather dryly. "It reminds me of that joke:. What did Watson and Crick discover in 1953? Rosalind Franklin's notes," referring to the two men who used notes and discoveries made by a woman- without her permission or knowledge- in formulating the structure of DNA. It is only much more recently that Franklin has begun to get the credit she deserves.

One may wonder how Emilie du Chatelet's contribution to history may be lost. She was an early champion of education for women, was one of the first people to think of and buy financial derivatives, was the first woman ever published by the Paris Academy of Science, and theorised the nature of light and infrared radiation, her predictions being shown to be correct when light was better understood. Perhaps her biggest achievement was her translation of Newton's Principia, which is still the leading French translation of the work. Gill explained; "Newton had a lot of ideas about motion, but his work was actually incomplete and in some cases he deliberately put a lot of information to make it hard to follow. Emilie made several corrections and annotations on the work, and it is these annotations that make her translation what it is. Newton misunderstood kinetic energy, the energy something has when it's moving, and Emilie realized it was wrong and made some early notes and did some experiments to move closer to the correct formula. A lot of what we know about motion, and thing's we call 'Newton's laws' come from how Emilie was able to interpret what Newton put out. No other scientists at the time were able to make sense of what Newton wrote in the way Emilie was."

Given this is Anatomical Heart's inaugural production, one may wonder where they will go next. Alan Gill co-founded the production company along with his partner Michelle Ezzy, who is directing the show. "We both love theatre and making our own production company is an idea we've toyed with for a while," said Gill. "When we found the script for EMILIE: LA MARQUISE DU CHATELET DEFENDS HER LIFE TONIGHT we knew it was time to dive in and do it. It really reminded us why we love theatre in the first place and it's a story we wanted to tell." For a company started by scientifically inclined theatre lovers, EMILIE could well be a sign of things to come.

"Since we established Anatomical Heart we keep finding other scripts we'd simply love to put on, but we have to keep reminding ourselves that we've got to rehearse and put on this one first. It's like the sporting cliché; Anatomical Heart is definitely taking it one show at a time. We're not sure what will come next, but at the same time we've really enjoyed putting this together so hopefully it's not too long before we're back at it."

Everyone involved with putting EMILIE on seems to have a common goal. "We're actually very excited," said Alan. "Hopefully people come to see this show and find a new perspective on Emilie and other women in history, and maybe on the women in their life, too. We want the show to make people be engaged by the show and to laugh. It's like any science communication though, we also really want people to learn something."

EMILIE: LA MARQUISE DU CHATELET DEFENDS HER LIFE TONIGHT is at Subiaco Arts Centre from August 11th-14th. Tickets and more information available from The Perth Theatre Trust.

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