THE POWER OF TWO


[Charles Babbage] [Ada Byron, Countess Lovelace]

An original play charting the intertwined lives of Ada Byron, Countess Lovelace and Charles Babbage. Separated by age, by class, by health and by fortune, they are the often unrecognised ancestors of today's computer-driven world.



The full text of The Power of Two is available on request.
Please note that this text is copyright and ask permission before using it. Thanks.
Requests to perform The Power of Two should, in the first case, be directed to me.

THE POWER OF TWO - Scene 13: The Dream


(CHARLES and ADA poring over the work, glasses of brandy in their hands, both a little tipsy.)

CHARLES
Add a Preface. Please.
Something that shows how foolish our Government have been, Lady Lovelace.
Something that can persuade them to fund me again.


ADA
No. Babbage, I will not permit you to use my work for political ends - this must be
pure science.


CHARLES
Ah, when you have lived as long as I have, you will know that science is never pure...


ADA
In any case. William and I can pay for your Engines.


CHARLES
No. I will not see anyone else beggar themselves but the Government.
Least of all my good friends.
The costs will be as great as the rewards.


ADA
We shall build your Engines for you, my dearest Babbage. One way or another.
And the world shall be ours. To the Engines!


CHARLES
To the Engines!


ADA
Sssh! William is asleep. He has to be out early to supervise another building.


CHARLES
He is a good architect, your husband. He has talent.


ADA
He has.


CHARLES
But I wish he would use it in Parliament, where it is needed.


(He drinks)


Man is but an Engine, you know. As complex as his Maker, but an Engine nonetheless.
Open up a skull, and what do you find? Fifty ounces of human porridge.


ADA
Engine soup.


CHARLES
One day, we shall decipher its alphabet.


(They laugh)


ADA
One day, you will be Prime Minister, and I shall be Minister of Engines.
The world will be British and we shall have a giant Engine to rule over it all.


CHARLES
Engines will harmonise the needs of industry, predict the weather for farmers...
No one will need to work...


ADA
Infinite leisure. Engines will write music and sing and paint the patterns of
God's imaginings.....


CHARLES
They will drive steam-driven ships safely to the four corners of the earth -
and solve the mysteries of creation.


ADA
Engine-powered ships will sail across the sky, defying Gravity and soaring to the stars...


CHARLES
We shall walk on the moon, and the bottom of the sea. Oh, I would give up the rest of
my days on earth for just one day five centuries hence and a guide to show me what
wonders we have wrought. Would that not be fine!


ADA
Fine. Oh, my Mephistopheles. Strike me that bargain.


CHARLES
Hah! No, dear lady. Call not upon the Devil. We do God's work.


ADA
(Toasting him) God's work!


CHARLES
I'm tired. I shall go up. I must be back in London tomorrow.
Send me the rest of loop program in Note D and I shall check it for you.


ADA No changes. No politics.


CHARLES And no mistakes. Good night, my Enchantress of Numbers.


ADA Good night, Inventor of Worlds. Sleep well. Here.


(ADA fills his glass for him. CHARLES goes. ADA stares hard into space and begins to dream.
Behind her, a WOMAN in jeans and a modern laboratory overall steps down to behind her shoulder.
Strange music SFX under.)

WOMAN
Canonical discriminant analysis reduces the dimensionality of the vector representation,
while retaining the influence of cluster memberships. New canonical discriminant functions
are obtained as linear combinations of the original AIS variables, chosen to reflect cluster
membership as much as possible. That is: Zi = Ai1 plus Ai2 plus a13 and so on - in order to
maximise the F-ratio for a one-way variance analysis.


(ADA touches her head, the WOMAN walks away and the SFX fades.
LX: Lights down - music transition into the next section.)


( END OF SCENE 14)

Back to Start of THE POWER OF TWO


THE POWER OF TWO - Scene 14: The Secretary

(ADA at the desk. She has a large glass of brandy, and is slightly drunk. KING enters, carrying more papers, very carefully.)

KING
There. I have inked in the drawings beautifully. How is your stomach?


(He gives it her.)

ADA
Confound the man! Why does he insist on changing my words!


KING
What seems to be the problem now?


ADA
He's a muddlehead - he's has mixed up Note G and Note F and changed the examples
from one to tother.


KING
Well, they are his machines.


ADA
And they are my Notes.


(Pause. KING starts playing chess against himself. A servant brings in a newspaper.)

ADA
I have been working like the very devil.


KING
Mmm.


ADA
Well?


KING
Well, what? (Suddenly) Oh. That is delightful! Wonderful!


ADA
What is?


KING
Read for yourself!


ADA
But that is barely a mile away! I cannot have her so close.
Next she will be wanting rooms here! I will have to talk to her. I cannot.
You talk to her. She listens to you.


KING
I talk to her? She is your mother.


ADA
But I cannot have her here. She will take over everything, tell me how to
raise the children, how to organise the household, everything.
I must have peace to complete my Notes.


KING She wants to help, Ada. She wants to be near her grandchildren.


(ADA bangs the table, papers fly.)

ADA
Why can he not place things in order - he is so disorganized!


KING
And you are not.


ADA
Because of him.


KING
Will you be careful, woman! I spent hours inking this for you - it is not yet dry!
Good Lord, I am amazed you can find anything in this jumble.


ADA
How does he expect us to get anywhere if he keeps changing his mind -
ideas pour out of him like water...


KING
Are you the Inventor?


ADA
No. I am the Interpreter. And I am interpreting the information that will, that WILL
change the course of the world. Who can foresee the consequences of his
invention - only I! You have no idea what energy, what genius lies beneath this
little frame of mine. If I choose, I can do anything. Instead I sift through a patchwork
of Babble. I will not have my words tampered with!


KING
When I talk with a foreman at the works for one of my buildings, ideas are
constantly changed, constantly written afresh....


ADA
(Not listening) My head will explode! My head will explode!


KING
Then get into your head that you are nothing but a glorified secretary.
Maybe that will deflate it!


ADA
(Staggered and hurt) I am not a Secretary. I am his Enchantress of Numbers! I am!
Get out of my sight.


KING
With pleasure. Perhaps your mother will help you ink the rest of your damned drawings.


ADA
Get out!



( END OF SCENE 14)

Back to Start of THE POWER OF TWO


Cast

The company numbered around 22 and doubled the following character list

Mr. Percy Shelley
Mrs. Mary Shelley
Clare Claremont
Dr. Polidori
Ada Byron - as a Child, in her Teens and as Lady King, Countess of Lovelace
Charles Babbage - as a Child, a Mathematician and Philosopher and as an Old Man
Mr. Thomas Hardacre - a Music Tutor to Ada in her Youth
Therese - A Maid
Merlin - an Inventor of Machines
His Assistant
Mrs. Elizabeth Babbage - the Mother of Mr. Babbage
Mr. John Herschel - Mathemetician & Friend to Mr. Babbage
Mrs. Georgiana Babbage - Wife to Mr. Babbage
Miss Anne Babbage - Sister to Mr. Babbage in her Youth
Richard Wright - a Journeyman and Servant to Mr. Babbage
Mr. Joseph Clement - a Master Engineer
Mr. Isambard Kingdom Brunel - an Inventor and Friend to Mr. Babbage
Lady Annabella Byron, Mother to Ada, Widow of Lord Byron
Lady Isabelle Morgan, a Woman of Society
Lord William King, Earl of Lovelace and Husband to Ada
Sir Robert Peel - Prime Minister
Mr. Lumley - Theatre Manager
Mrs. Sophie De Morgan, Friend to Lady Byron and Wife of the Mathemetician, Augustus De Morgan
Mr. John Crosse, A Gambler and Libertine
Annabella King - Ada's Daughter
Mr. Guiseppe Dolce - an Organ Grinder
Young John - a Street Musician's Son
Major-General Sir Henry Babbage, Son to Mr. Babbage
Mrs. Minnie Babbage, Daughter-in-law to Mr. Babbage
Mrs. Anne Hollier, Sister to Mr. Babbage in her Old Age


Running time: Approximately 2 hours 30 minutes with interval.


Notes

Charles Babbage was an extraordinary polymath and inventor, but chief amongst his works must be the Difference Engine. Though never fully built in his lifetime, it became the model for the Hollerith mechanical calculators - later to become IBM. Babbage further developed the Difference Engine as a general-purpose, programmeable machine - the Analytical Engine, and so must be credited as the inventor of the first computer, just as Ada's Notes clearly single her out as the world's first programmer - for which she has had a computer language named after her. Ada, the "Queen of Engines" also features in William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's steam-punk novel "The Difference Engine".

Material for the play was "workshopped" and devised with the cast, the 1992 Second Year of the Acting Course at Guildford School of Drama, one of the best English regional drama schools. Original music for the show was written and performed by Simon Ashmore.

The play was dedicated to the memory of another polymath, my father, who died in February 20th, 1992.


The full text of The Power of Two is available on request.
Please note that this text is copyright and ask permission before using it. Thanks.
Requests to perform The Power of Two should, in the first case, be directed to me.

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