Review: THREE BILLION LETTERS, Riverside Studios

Science and art might appear to be strange bedfellows, but can fit together comfortably, as witnessed in Michael Frayn's Copenhagen, Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones.  

TAKDAJA (YES YES YES in Polish, Romanian and German to represent the four members of the alternative performance group) attempts to inform theatre goers about their DNA and genetics in a new work at Riverside Studios. Although it's somewhat entertaining, with a good deal of enthusiasm and audience participation, ultimately the evening's more failed experiment than science-meets-drama success.

Three Billion Letters refers to the size of human genome ("the letters than make up the human genome") is a three-hander by performers and writers Mimmi Bauer, Patrycja Dynowska and Michael Szpak.

In what's essentially an illustrated lecture, the troupe carries out small experiments ­– like getting the audience to put strips of paper on our tongues (which gave me flashbacks of endless Covid tests) and then splitting the audience in two, dependent on who had a bitter taste in their mouth and who didn't. Why this was so is never really explained succinctly.

This is the case with most of the other experiments and activities, including some people standing and reciting a House of Darwin prayer (why?), Mimmi dancing to 'Wild Thing' (is this a reference to her wild genes?) and those without grey hair going to the back of the theatre and the rest remaining at the front. We're suspicious of the latter, as we spot grey hair in a guy's beard, but maybe he just couldn't be bothered to move from his back row seat.

Along with simplifying proceedings (there's a lot of audience movement, not always for obvious reasons) the production could benefit from radio mics for the performers so we can hear them more clearly. Also, it's difficult to hear audience contributions, some of which turn out to be the most interesting part of the show.

For instance, there's a woman who tells us about a genetic condition found in a 15-mile stretch of Donegal and a young woman who breaks down in tears while telling us her concerns about her new-born child inheriting a genetic disease.

There's interesting discussion around designer babies. Should people be allowed to choose the sex of an embryo? The colour of their baby's eyes?

And how do we feel about genetic manipulation that might get rid of bad genes (think of inherited Huntington's, hemophilia, colour blindness and ADHD), but do we want to eradicate all of them? Some things can be good, demonstrated by the performers reading the audience's favoured traits of their own from bits of paper at the end of the show. Good hair, pleasing baritone voice, empathy, freckles and sense of humour are some examples.

After 70 minutes (no interval) of exploration augmented by eerie sound effects, blowing bubbles and a burst of confetti, I'm not sure I learned a great deal about DNA and genetics. However, from TAKDAJA's social media marketing I'm heartened to hear about a new antibody treatment for Alzheimer's that cleared toxic plaque from the brain in early trials, but this is more a footnote from a lecture instead of a great dramatic character-led moment that moves me.

Three Billion Letters runs at Riverside Studios until August 17