Perimeter Institute invites the public to celebrate our 25th anniversary in September 2025, and there are a variety of activities on offer. In addition to conversations with scientists, science activities for all ages, peeks inside the building, and film screenings, guests are also invited to Perimeter’s theatre for a dramatic reading of A Quantum of Hope, a one-act play that was co-written by five of Perimeter’s Physics Master’s Program (PSI) alumni.
The five students bonded over ten months of living, struggling and laughing together as part of the 2021/22 PSI cohort. The celebration of PSI’s 15th anniversary brought them back to Perimeter in 2024. As part of the reunion events, alumni were invited to participate in a pitch competition for creative projects. The team took first place in the competition and received funding from the competition’s sponsor, Two Small Fish Ventures.
Think a creative writing project is an unlikely venture for theoretical physicists? Think again. The connection between physicists and creativity is obvious to anyone who has spent time at Perimeter, says Anna Knörr, one of the co-authors of the play.
“All around Perimeter there are people doing really interesting stuff inside and outside the building,” Today, the five alumni are based in Boston (USA), Hannover (GER) and Kopenhagen (DK) where they are pursuing their PhDs in quantum science, gravitational physics and mathematics.
Knörr and her classmates, Shawn Skelton, Jaime Redondo Yuste, Manu Srivastava, and Anna Brandenberger, collaborated over shared documents and virtual calls to complete their project. Three of them will return to Perimeter in September 2025 to see their work take to the stage.
Skelton adds that they are proud of and thankful for all the support and advice the team received from both theater experts as well as technical experts in quantum. This partnership was key for the success of the project, and Skelton hopes others will take inspiration in similar endeavors.
About the play
In a Douglas Adams-inspired setting, planet Earth must prove its scientific value to an alien civilization within five years or face destruction. A council of five quantum scientists and entrepreneurs are locked in a room to select a single project proposal that might live up to the task. The show is structured in the style of 12 Angry Men in a galactic-grade grant review committee, where scientific ideas, moral convictions, and unruly egos clash.
“For an academic audience, it’s a satire on grant review committees, and for a general audience, we’ve really tried to bring scientists to life,” says Brandenberger. “There are jokes and drama as different personalities collide.”
How to see it
Dramatic readings of A Quantum of Hope will take place on Saturday September 20 and Sunday September 21, 2025. Members of the Perimeter community will read the script on stage and the show’s creators plus quantum researchers from Perimeter will be available for a talkback discussion following each performance.
Free tickets to A Quantum of Hope and all events associated with Perimeter’s 25th anniversary can be booked online.
À propos de l’IP
L'Institut Périmètre est le plus grand centre de recherche en physique théorique au monde. Fondé en 1999, cet institut indépendant vise à favoriser les percées dans la compréhension fondamentale de notre univers, des plus infimes particules au cosmos tout entier. Les recherches effectuées à l’Institut Périmètre reposent sur l'idée que la science fondamentale fait progresser le savoir humain et catalyse l'innovation, et que la physique théorique d'aujourd'hui est la technologie de demain. Situé dans la région de Waterloo, cet établissement sans but lucratif met de l'avant un partenariat public-privé unique en son genre avec entre autres les gouvernements de l'Ontario et du Canada. Il facilite la recherche de pointe, forme la prochaine génération de pionniers de la science et communique le pouvoir de la physique grâce à des programmes primés d'éducation et de vulgarisation.
