STEM CELL THERAPY > LEARNING TO LOVE THE GREY > AUTHOR'S PERSPECTIVE

Writing Learning To Love The Grey

Perspective from playwright Jonathon Hall

	Jonathon Hall

Writing a play with science based issues always presents its own problems. As an author one is faced with the daunting task of taking years and years of research and factual information and reducing it into simple 'bite sized chunks' which the average audience can understand.

In some ways I'm an old hand at this; as a long time teacher of five-year-olds I was annually faced with the task of explaining the nativity with its concepts of occupation, census and virgin birth. I have, therefore, become somewhat adept at simplifying explanations.

However with a science based play there's always a perilously fine line between putting in too much information and losing one's audience, and simplifying facts to the extent of misinforming them. With the subject of cloning this proved to be even more the case than usual because, as I rapidly found out, cloning is a branch of science about which many misconceptions are held, even today in our increasingly 'science aware' society.

Say "cloning" to most people and they'll respond with 'Dolly the sheep'. Press them further and they might say 'photocopied humans' . Some may even have read 'The Boys from Brazil'. I know this because before I started this project I was one of those people.

The truth as I rapidly found out was not nearly so simple. Photocopied humans, or cloning for reproductive purposes, is only one part of the science, and to my mind, a not very important part. Cloning of humans for reproductive purposes is not likely to happen in this country, at least not in the foreseeable future.

Even Dolly the sheep is not quite what she seems; she isn't the world's first cloned sheep. She had a predecessor who escaped the world's attention because her presence was announced the day before the Dunblane tragedy. And, aside from all of this, there is another application of the science, an application that could, if developed, potentially treat degenerative illnesses such as Parkinson's disease and Multiple Sclerosis.

Therefore, the play became about on the one hand 'debunking the Dolly myth', and on the other informing people about the other issues surrounding the subject. In the end I've produced something that feels akin to a cross between a play and an essay. It was a good process for me, one that provided me with much interest; I can only hope that interest is reflected in the writing.

Jonathon Hall