THE HARD PROBLEM
By Tom Stoppard
The Dorfman Theatre (at the National Theatre)
Running until 27 May
This is not a play to go to for a relaxing evening’s light entertainment, but it is stimulating and challenging.
The play’s background is the concept of dualism, understood by the modern world to mean the separation between materialism and other traditional, largely religious beliefs. The programme refers to Descartes as the founder of modern dualism in the sense of a separation between mind and body. This philosophy is now by and large rejected by monism, which is behind materialism and Darwin.
