Blue Lias is a new one-woman play by Claudia Stevens, with music composed by Allen Shearer, for her performance as actor, keyboardist and singer. Stevens portrays the paleontologist Mary Anning, arguably the most significant fossilist and geologist in nineteenth century England. Terminally ill, she sums up her career while waiting to receive a small honor, bitter over the use of her discoveries by the community of male scientists without attribution. At once playful, wistful, sardonic and angry, Anning considers her life and times, religious values, and most significant discoveries within the context of emerging evolutionary theory. Stevens’ humorous portrayal of Anning’s nemesis, the eccentric, self-important geologist and academic William Buckland, provides a window into the culture wars of that period: Buckland, a clergyman/scientist, attempted to reconcile scientific discoveries with religious doctrine. Blue Lias offers important insights into significant characters and issues in the history of science and the complex relationship between science and religion.
The form of Blue Lias is that of a play within an (imagined) professional meeting of scientists. The theater audience is thus “cast” as a group of convention participants being entertained by the play, commissioned for the occasion.