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.
About PI
Perimeter Institute is the world’s largest research hub devoted to theoretical physics. The independent Institute was founded in 1999 to foster breakthroughs in the fundamental understanding of our universe, from the smallest particles to the entire cosmos. Research at Perimeter is motivated by the understanding that fundamental science advances human knowledge and catalyzes innovation, and that today’s theoretical physics is tomorrow’s technology. Located in the Region of Waterloo, the not-for-profit Institute is a unique public-private endeavour, including the Governments of Ontario and Canada, that enables cutting-edge research, trains the next generation of scientific pioneers, and shares the power of physics through award-winning educational outreach and public engagement.
