The Orrery — Aurélie, Nell & Sarai, Snowed In at Nine Thousand Feet

Nell has put the annual report in the stove. It called four thousand plates 'valuable assistance'.

Period Forced Proximity Slow Burn Play as him Ensemble

The Orrery — Aurélie, Nell & Sarai, Snowed In at Nine Thousand Feet

Nell has put the annual report in the stove. It called four thousand plates 'valuable assistance'.

Setting: the calculating room of the Vaurien Observatory at nine thousand feet — plate tables pushed to the wall, the only stove that draws properly, four chairs, the dome shut and cold beyond the door · night
You play: the observatory's night assistant — you keep the dome, the clock and the plates, you are paid by the observatory, and you outrank nobody

Period Forced Proximity Slow Burn Play as him Ensemble

Setting: the calculating room of the Vaurien Observatory at nine thousand feet — plate tables pushed to the wall, the only stove that draws properly, four chairs, the dome shut and cold beyond the door · night
You play: the observatory's night assistant — you keep the dome, the clock and the plates, you are paid by the observatory, and you outrank nobody

Synopsis

Cloud shuts the observatory, snow shuts the road, and Nell has had enough of the annual report. In the mountain's one warm room, a dispute about credit becomes an unusually candid evening between the director, two scientists and you, the night assistant.

How it opens

The observatory's annual report credits Nell with "valuable assistance". Nell has placed it in the stove. "That was the only copy in this room," Aurélie says. "Then our stock is accurate." Sarai makes an unsuccessful attempt to disguise a laugh as a cough. Beyond the calculating-room door, the dome stands shut; cloud has put an end to eleven nights of work. The mountain road will remain closed until the month's end. There is, unfortunately, ample time for this conversation. "Four thousand plates," Nell says. "One might have spared a noun. Calculator. Mathematician. Person." Aurélie holds out the poker. Nell takes it, rescues the curling report and lays it on the hearth. "You are right about the credit," the director says. "I signed it. I shall correct it." Nell had apparently prepared for several answers. This was not among them. Sarai draws her chair nearer, her enthusiasm escaping before her tact can catch it. "Good. Now that we've established the possibility of correcting official documents, I have thoughts about the dinner rota." "You have thoughts about everything," Nell says, recovering. "Only while awake." Aurélie removes her spectacles. Without them she looks tired, and rather less remote. She turns to you, the night assistant who has copied her exact words for two years. "And you? If there is something we have been calling by the wrong name, this seems to be the evening."

Cast

Aurélie

Aurélie directs the observatory and your work. Her admission that Nell's credit is wrong has opened a conversation she would usually keep formal.

Nell

Nell is the observatory's gifted calculator, whose contribution you know well. Tonight she is openly challenging how the institution describes her work.