The Ramanujan Constant

McBurney,who has directed A Disappearing Number,says he lived with the idea for nearly a decade before it premiered in London in 2007. When his close friend and actor Katrin Cartlidge died,he revisited the final chapter of the Hardy-Ramanujan collaboration and the death of Ramanujan in 1920,at the age of 32. When Complicite first toured India to stage Shakespeares Measure for Measure in 2005,McBurney travelled to Madras to meet people who knew Ramanujans widow and find out more about his life.

In the play,he frames the Hardy-Ramanujan story in a contemporary narrative of a maths lecturer who travels to India to trace Ramanujans life. It also uses Ramanujan and Hardys breakthroughs in the field of partition numbers as a device to talk about other kinds of partitions cultural and political.

Before McBurney takes the play to Hyderabad,he will stage it in Mumbai for three days from August 9. Sanjna Kapoor,director of Prithvi Theatre,says it has been her dream to bring A Disappearing Number to India,but she was initially daunted by the huge cost that a play of such a large scale would involve. I was moved to tears when I saw it at the Barbican Centre in London in 2007. Still,I was not sure about hosting it in India, she says. But recently,professor MS Raghunathan of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research informed her about the International Congress of Mathematicians in Hyderabad,an ideal backdrop for a Ramanujan play. We just couldnt miss this chance, says Kapoor.

She first watched a Complicite play 12 years ago on the recommendation of her aunt,the British actor Felicity Kendal. Interactions with Complicite continued over the years,mostly through faxed messages. When the company first came to Mumbai with Measure for Measure,they performed at the 1,100-seater Jamshed Bhabha Theatre and theatregoers were blown away. Then McBurney,to Kapoors delight,unexpectedly added Prithvi Theatre to the schedule. The intimate space of Prithvi was unable to accommodate the original production,but he staged a stripped-down version of the play. Still the impact remained the same all shows ran houseful. Thats the genius of McBurney, says Kapoor.

Complicite is quite like the boho McBurney. Though considered to be one of the worlds top theatre groups and one which changed the vocabulary of contemporary British theate,it calls itself an evolving ensemble of performers and still doesnt have a building of its own. The advantage is that we can pop up anywhere and follow our agenda, says McBurney. He trained under the French actor Jacques Lecoq,famous for his methods in physical theatre,and has never denied his teachers influence. Complicite adds technology to narrative text,music to movements to create a strong visual and aural impact. Its repertoire of over 40 productions include adaptations of Samuel Beckett and Shakespeare and Haruki Murakamis short stories The Elephant Vanishes.

A Disappearing Number has several actors from the Indian diaspora,including Firdaus Bamji,Paul Bhattacharjee,Hiren Chate,Divya Kasturi,Chetna Pandya and Shane Shambhu,and the music is composed by Nitin Sawhney. We wanted to show Ramanujans feeling of exile in Cambridge through a cast that can express the reality of migration, says McBurney.

The play was shown at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York early this year. After the India tour,the company will return to Londons West End.