Oh, 31! I do love Primes
To commemorate the beginning of Women’s History Month, Edmond’s Driftwood Players opened Lauren Gunderson’s Ada and the Engine, a play about the early 19th theoretical pioneers of the computer, the mathematicians Ada Byron Lovelace and Charles Babbage.
In reality Ada Lovelace, born in 1815, was the daughter of two exceptional parents. Her father was the scandalously notorious Romantic poet George Gordon, Lord Byron. Her mother, Anne Isabelle Milbank-Noel although less well known, was the highly intellectually gifted daughter of gentry parents who hired a Cambridge professor to educate her in the classics, philosophy, science and mathematics. Lady Byron was also a very active abolitionist, promoter of education and regrettably excessively religious.
In spite of Lady Byron’s adherence to strict rules of respectability, she nevertheless bravely separated from her husband when Ada was only five months old, not long after they were married, due to his alcoholism and erratic behavior, which some would call just the normal behavior of a romantic poet and Lady Byron called “insanity.” Taking such a step in those days, along with obtaining a legal separation was a bold thing for any woman to do.
Lady Byron passed her love of mathematics and science on to her daughter and had her tutored in these subjects from an early age. Some say it was to prevent Ada from developing into a poet with the same passionate insanity as Lord Byron, and to ground her in something rational and logical. Ada ended up being as passionate about mathematics as her father was about poetry, and rebellious like he was.
Ada and the Engine covers Ada’s life from the age of 18 until her unfortunate death at age 36 of uterine cancer, while concentrating on her relationship with the much older Charles Babbage, a scientist and mathematician who conceived the idea of the computer as a calculating machine, and their collaboration. Ada is credited with being the first programmer.
Gunderson focuses on the ambiguous nature of their relationship. He was a much older widower, she was fatherless. There has never been any substantial evidence that there was anything romantic about their relationship but it was like many relationships, very complicated.
Along the way, they discuss mathematics, the Calculating engine, and of course the future of what would become computing. Ada envisages that the calculating engine has other applications than just calculating, for example, Ada realizes that “the engine” could be used to compose music!!!! As indeed it has been.
The strength of this production was the dialogue of the script; it was zippy, and amusing in spite of the seriousness of the subject matter. The two leads Guneet Kaur Banga as a pretty, plucky Ada, and Sumant Gupta as an avuncular Charles Babbage were more than up to the task to bring this delightful dialogue to life with their excellent rapport and chemistry.
Initially, the set by Leanne Markle spoke volumes about the bubbling creativity of science, mathematics and their applications during the industrial revolution. The backdrop was full of astronomy and mathematical equations, illustrating pure science and math; next to it, on the stage, were gigantic gears illustrating the practical applications of mathematical and scientific knowledge. Babbage and Ada Lovelace were at the forefront of this bubbling creativity.
Unfortunately, the set did not serve the production well, as there were these cumbersome gear-platforms on the stage which hindered movement; consequently the director, Eric Bishoff, placed the actors in small corners of the stage with very little movement. Since most of the scenes were conversations, there needed to be movement. Consequently, it was less than ideal for me to sit watching actor’s backs, as they talked to each other. Also it broke the most fundamental basic rule of directing-use the space.
Ada and the Engine does not tell the whole story of Ada Lovelace and, in my opinion, distorts the character of the mother, it nevertheless was an enlightening play for Women’s History Month and particularly interesting in this high-tech region of the world.
Ada and the Engine. Edmonds Driftwood Players. Wade James Theatre, 950 Main Street, Edmonds, WA 98020. Thur-Sat 8 pm. Sun 2 pm. Til March 17.
Parking lot or street parking available.