Tangente: Marie Lhuissier, you write and perform mathematical tales. Could you tell us about your work, particularly its connection with mathematical theatre?**
M.L.: I am a mathematical storyteller. After earning a doctorate in mathematics, I decided to turn to storytelling so that I could share my view of mathematics with younger audiences through stories. My work (****) has many links with mathematical theatre. First, I devise and write mathematical stories for the stage—stories that work when told aloud and are simple and rhythmic enough to be performed. Then I design and make mathematical objects for the stage, often with the help of a set designer: they must be large, sturdy, easy to handle, beautiful and distinctive. Finally, on stage, I embody characters who do mathematics: they think and search and make mistakes and invent.
What, in your view, does theatre chiefly bring to mathematics—and vice versa?
This is subjective, but I would say it lets us see characters, fictional or otherwise, doing mathematics, and shows how that activity is intertwined with their emotions, their relationship with the world and their desires… Theatre is the perfect medium for showing just how "human" mathematics is.
What mathematics chiefly brings to theatre is the opportunity to tell different kinds of stories: stories whose main action is not fighting, seducing or building, but reasoning, abstracting and modelling. They are not easy to tell, but I think many people find them interesting—and that makes the effort worthwhile!
