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205:(Susannah) is a stereotypical wife of the time and their two daughters (Maria and Harriet) are expected to be such, too. The decision of one of them to become a scientist leads to disapproval. In 1999, the roles somehow change: Ellen, the wife, is the geneticist, and her husband, Tom, is a historian. Ellen's friend, Kate, is also a young genetic researcher. There are also two "uneducated" characters: Isobel, the 1799 maid, and Phil, the 1999 handyman.
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Besides the general questions about a scientist's responsibilities and limits, the play is in part a detective story. In the modern times, a skeleton is found in the basement. The skipping between the two time periods highlights, then resolves, questions about the identity of the corpse and the means
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Susannah is the wife of Joseph
Fenwick. She is, in some respects, the 1799 equivalent of Tom, with a passion for reading, poetry and art. Susannah overcomes issues with her husband about love and respect throughout the play, though it is clear she drinks heavily and relies upon childish behaviour to
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The plot takes place in the same house in two different time periods divided by the gap of two hundred years (1799 and 1999). The play questions the basic principles of scientific (medical) research, such as the right of the scientist to cross ethical limits: the right to perform dissection on the
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After
Armstrong seduces Isobel, he confesses to Roget that he feigned love for Isobel because then she would agree to have intercourse with him. If she is naked, then he can examine her twisted spine more thoroughly. Isobel overhears and is moved to kill herself by hanging. Armstrong finds her
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The play also implicitly deals with gender roles and questions the stereotypes of women scientists. While in 1799, it is the father (Fenwick) who is the enlightened soul and his male friends are also scientists (Armstrong, the physician, and Roget, the to-be-author of the thesaurus), his wife
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Maria is also the daughter of Joseph and
Susannah Fenwick and is the sister of Harriet. She always wants to be the centre of attention and is in constant competition with Harriet to see who can be the better daughter. She is engaged to a character who is never seen on stage called Edward.
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is the only character in the play based on a real person- the creator of Roget's
Thesaurus. In the play, he is a character in whom an inward moral battle rages about the ethics of science, though he maintains that he is a scientist because he wants to "understand the society".
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An additional theme of this play involves the ethics of using human life, in any form, for the advancement of science. Though the topic is not specifically discussed in 1799, the characters in 1999 do talk about the issue, though no concrete conclusions are drawn.
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Armstrong is a cold, ruthless physician who is particularly interested with the structure of the human body. He is staying with the
Fenwicks after Dr. Farleigh (a character never seen on stage) persuades Dr. Fenwick to "take him on for three months".
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hanging and speeds up the process. The characters in 1799 ring in the new year with the death of Isobel, whereas, the characters in 1999 begin the new millennium leaving their old home, and the certainties it possessed for them, behind.
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Both years are symbolic—they stand at the turns of new centuries and have to face the challenges the new times are about to bring. There will be a great development in medicine in the 19th and of genetics in the 21st centuries.
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Kate is Ellen's friend/fellow geneticist who offers her a job at her company. She is in direct conflict with Tom for most of the play as they both have opposing views on the conduct and morality of scientific exploration.
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Dr. Fenwick is a radical physician who believes that republicanism is the way forward. He has a fairly cynical view of the world and is a scientist because he "want to change the world".
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building surveyor who is surveying Ellen and Tom's house which they are planning to sell. He offers human compassion and comic relief in the play.
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Tom is Ellen's husband and is an
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Harriet is the daughter of Joseph and
Susannah Fenwick and the sister of Maria. She admires her Father but loses her temper easily.
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289:. Although timid, Isobel has a passion for words and it is evident that she is an intelligent, though self-conscious person.
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https://www.facebook.com/gpctag/photos/a.358312207534601.90073.108838879148603/934049399960876/?type=1&theater
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Ellen is a geneticist who is being persuaded to take a job that is being offered to her from Kate's company.
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586:"The Company of Players | Productions | an Experiment with an Air Pump by Shelagh Stephenson"
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in 1998, and has since been staged by a number of other companies worldwide. It was published in
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2008 production coming up at the
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Isobel is the maid of the
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recently deceased (1799) and use of embryos in stem-cell research (1999).
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No Drama Theatre, Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, Ireland (2017)
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Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA (2012)
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Sinclair Community College - Production set May 2008
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234:Susannah Fenwick (1799)
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430:University of Nebraska
390:University of Adelaide
348:Manhattan Theatre Club
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243:Harriet Fenwick (1799)
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360:Shipping Dock Theatre
356:Dallas, TX, US (2000)
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408:Maddermarket Theatre
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442:The Little Theatre
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366:Middlebury College
168:Shelagh Stephenson
45:Shelagh Stephenson
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107:Original language
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588:. Archived from
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192:Plot summary
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484:, UK (2011)
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321:Kate (1999)
309:Phil (1999)
166:playwright
628:1997 plays
596:2009-02-26
572:References
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301:Tom (1999)
221:Characters
51:Characters
41:Written by
287:hunchback
186:Plays One
622:Category
125:Morality
315:geordie
164:English
141:Setting
121:Science
117:Subject
111:English
482:London
438:(2009)
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265:Roget
135:Drama
131:Genre
70:Ellen
76:Kate
74:Phil
176:by
72:Tom
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