Introducing a Third Culture:Carl Djerassi and Roald Hoffmann in Theatre

More than a century-old gap of mutual incomprehension between social scientists and humanities scholars, famously pointed out by C. P. Snow in 1961, has resulted in the formation of two cultures – the sciences and the arts – which have ceased to communicate over a period of time. In the late 1980s, however, Carl Djerassi’s invention of a new literary genre called science-in-theatre paved the way for the development of a ‘third culture’. In focusing on this interface between scientific knowledge and humanistic enquiry, the present article outlines several conversations that take place among the areas of history, gender, theatre, and science, all of which find their place in the thematic landscape of Carl Djerassi and Roald Hoffmann’s play Oxygen (2001).