Incompleteness — the play

By Vivienne Nilan

Now, in what is probably its final form — the author can’t resist last-minute fine-tuning — the play dramatizes Gödel’s last days, the clash between his meticulously logical approach to life and the well-meaning but equally wrong-headed approach of the fictional hospital dietician, Mary Pearson, who feels duty-bound to make her patient eat.

The characters act out the tragicomic implications of the Incompleteness Theorem in the real world. The play is moving but not pessimistic. Loss leads to illumination and the beginning of hope for another character.

Acknowledging the contribution of the actors to the production, Doxiadis remarks: “Their making themselves at home with the play influenced me a lot. They showed me the emotional priorities, the real emotional lifelines running through the play. It’s important to be able to do that and it is only a stupid playwright who does not listen to what is happening on the stage, who tries to create life, forgetting the actors and experience.”

The talented cast, Alexandra Pavlidou (The Actress), Judy Boyle (Pearson), Jonathan Kemp (Gödel), and Ian Robertson (David Hilbert, a part that has since been cut), were directed by Tony Stevens.

July 2, 2003: Vivienne Nilan – Herald Tribune / Kathimerini English Edition