What inspired you to write Vere (Faith)?
The great battles being waged across the world today are
essentially fuelled by the irrational being intolerant of the
rational. By chance I stumbled across a point overlooking the
Grose Valley (pictured below) where Darwin had stood and Vere
Gordon Childe had fallen. This sparked a way of corralling the
battle.
Why did this inspiration lead to a play and not, for
instance, a book or TV program?
I have long been drawn to performance writing. Writing
for actors is an extraordinary privilege. Vere
(Faith) began as a play and finished as a play. From
the outset. No other form occurred to me.
What personally draws you to the debate of science
versus religion?
An abiding interest in the Enlightenment, where educated
people, usually men of the cloth, became interested in
investigating nature and were amazed and shocked, and
eventually a little frightened, by what they found.
Is being a scientist and believing in God
contradictory?
You would think so. But it's not the case. I have had
many interesting chats with Paul Davies - an extraordinary
Physicist who won the Templeton Prize for a work 'affirming
life's spiritual dimension'. He would probably argue that
the Scientific Method came from the religious disciplines of
the eighteenth century - the Enlightenment. Atheism is the
child of the Enlightenment. But when it's all boiled down, it
comes down to Faith. At the point of faith comes an
unsatisfying impasse.
Vere (Faith), 6 Nov - 7 Dec
2013, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House