I Is a Strange Loop

Alone in a cube that's glowing in the darkness, X is content within its little universe of infinite thought. This solitude is disturbed by the appearance of Y, who insists on exposing X to the richness of the physical world. Each begins to long for what the other has, luring them into a strange loop.

In this play for two variables, Marcus du Sautoy and Victoria Gould use mathematics and theatre to navigate the known and unknown reaches of our world. Through a series of surreal episodes, X and Y explore some of the biggest questions: where did the universe come from, does time have an end, is there something on the other side, do we have free will, can we ever prove anything about our universe?

I is a Strange Loop was first performed by the authors at the Barbican Pit, London, in March 2019. This book features an introduction by Marcus du Sautoy.

'I is a Strange Loop is a play that plays... with ideas, concepts, abstractions and relationships that are, usually, hidden from the sight of ordinary mortals, articulating the ineffable, incarnating the incorporeal, revealing the inconceivable... it makes us feel we know a great deal more than we do.... and is also very funny, utterly compelling and marvellously human.' Simon McBurney