Stage chemistry: the marriage of science and theatre is going strong

Last year, after sitting through a mere two performances, Alexis Soloski resolved that, apart from a few anomalies, theatre plus science equalled poor plays. In the face of a current spate of mediocre climate change productions it could be easy to settle once again on this reductive conclusion. But we shouldn't let the apparent failure of Greenland tempt us back into such lazy reasoning. Now more than ever, there are plenty of shows that disprove Soloski's theory.

As far back as the 19th century, scientific thinking has piqued artistic interest. It was salon theories about the rumoured posthumous reanimation work of Erasmus Darwin that inspired Mary Shelley to write her masterpiece, Frankenstein. In the hands of golden boy Danny Boyle and adaptor Nick Dear, this classic horror is currently a main stage triumph at the National Theatre, "creating shocks, spectacular coups de theatre … and scenes that tug at the heart". I'd say that was a pretty positive result.

As part of Clod Ensemble's long-running Performing Medicine programme, Peggy Shaw offers an exploration of what it is to be human, from the philosophical to the physiological, in Must: the Inside Story, currently touring nationally. Shaw has created a poetic lesson in anatomy as she takes us on a journey of her body. It's a bruising and beautiful piece of work, which uses the bones of the body to explore the feelings of the heart.

With young companies beginning to take up this mantle, the marriage of science and theatre is going from strength to strength. Curious Directive "... encourages its audiences to be curious about the world, peering through the lens of science". They recently impressed with Return to the Silence at the Pleasance, a piece on neurology based on the works of Oliver Sacks, himself an inspiration for Harold Pinter and Peter Brook.

For their most recent show, dANTE or dIE have assembled a group including an ex GP and pharmacist to create a response to the British Museum's Cradle to Grave. A fusion of dance and story, Side Effects is a probing look at the pills we pop during our lives, a fascinating and disquieting dissection of our medical histories.

But it's not all about biology or self prognosis. As part of Spill Festival, Kings of England will be documenting the life of eccentric physicist Paul Dirac. A Nobel prize-winning physicist, who was fundamental to the formation of string theory, Dirac was an extreme introvert famed for the "Dirac pause" (he once waited over two minutes to answer a colleague, who had simply asked how he was). The first in a 10-part cycle of works named In Eldersfield: Elegy for Paul Dirac will theatricalise some of the more extraordinary moments of Dirac's strange life and theories in what should be a challenging event; as awkward and unique as the man himself.

In a much less esoteric fashion, Unlimited theatre's Mission to Mars uses the real science from the planned Mars missions in a fun-filled, often aerial space adventure aimed to inspire children about science. The prognosis is fantastic, with critics and parents alike raving about this charming action-packed journey.

Devised work, full-length plays, children's shows, dance pieces: in every walk of theatrical life, science is proving an astonishingly fertile platform for dynamic and exciting art. Empirically it's clear to see that theatre can, and does, successfully represent the thrilling discoveries and experiments of science.