The Smartest Show You’ll Get Soaked At: Alphabet of Awesome Science Returns to Edinburgh

The Alphabet of Awesome Science from That Science Gang is back at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for its third year, bringing big words, bigger experiments, and plenty of messy, explosive fun for kids and families.

We caught up with writer, director, and performer David Lampard to find out more about this high-energy science spectacular.

For those who haven’t seen the show before, how would you describe The Alphabet of Awesome Science in just one sentence?

The Alphabet of Awesome Science is an alphabetical, scientifical variety hour — a race through the alphabet where rare and obscure words inspire mind-blowing science.

What inspired you to create a show that combines the alphabet with such wild and messy science experiments? 

Kids love big words. More than that, they love telling you the biggest word they know — which is usually antidisestablishmentarianism or pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (!). At some point (about 15 years ago) it struck me that an alphabet of wonderfully weird words (both big and small) could potentially provide an interesting jumping off point for a sequence of 26 wild and quirky science demonstrations. The idea just felt, well… fun. But for some reason I felt the urge to turn the ‘fun screws’ a little tighter — so, audiences (randomly) choose the order we perform the letters in AND we race against a literal ticking clock. Carefully crafted (messy / explosive / awesome) chaos ensues!

How do you balance making the science accurate while keeping it fun and accessible for kids aged five and up?

It’s a delicate art! During the performance we have about two minutes to explore each letter of the alphabet (and its associated word / experiment). That’s a lot to get through in a short space of time! While writing the show I spent a lot of time slimming down the scientific ideas I wanted to incorporate — a process that meant I was constantly at war with my intrinsic tendency towards science-related zealotry! However, the act of ‘concept distillation’ often resulted in me discovering the inherent humour in each show segment. The fun and gags kind of just evolved organically from the self-imposed brevity. Everything fell into wonderful balance — with plenty of space for wonderful words, spectacular science and a healthy helping of shenanigans. In short, every letter is its own little story — and every two minutes there’s new story to discover…

The show includes some experiments that adults might find useful—can you share an example of one that parents might appreciate?

Oh, yes indeed! There is one extremely simple demo in the show that teaches you a technique for emptying a bottle of water in record time. All you have to do is wirble the bottle. What’s wirbling? Well, you’ll have to come along to our show to discover that (or you could Google the word…!). I wrote this show segment as a placeholder for something maybe a little bit spectacular — but, since audiences always engage so wonderfully with this part of the show, this quirky little skit has stayed in the performance — amongst all the other splishes, splashes, eruptions and explosions.

This is your third year bringing the show to the Fringe—what keeps you coming back to Edinburgh?

There’s a couple of reasons, but chief amongst them is that Edinburgh audiences are so incredibly fun! This will be our third fringe season at this remarkable fringe. The first year was absolutely terrifying (for many, many reasons!). But last year was a little less terrifying — and our team felt very much at home in Edinburgh. This festival is also where we get to meet and chat with theatre representatives from around the world — and begin building future touring opportunities. We’re hoping to keep coming back every year for as long as we can — with this show, plus maybe a few others (watch this space!) in the not-too-distant future…

If you could pick one letter from A to Z that best represents your personality or approach to science, which would it be and why?

What a great question (that no one has ever asked before!) — and an easy one to answer. In our show, J is for jocoserious, which means: “Half jocular, half serious; blending jokes and serious matters”. And that pretty much sums up my approach to creating “Science Theatre”. First and foremost, we want to entertain our audiences — to make them laugh and gasp in awe. But laughter can be a serious anchor for learning, so our shows deliberately embed mirth-making moments amongst all of the science ‘facts’ and ideas in an attempt to encourage a little bit of ‘accidental’ learning. The Alphabet of Awesome Science is a distillation of the way I approach science communication. It is the very definition of jocoserious…

The Alphabet of Awesome Science is at Udderbelly at Underbelly George Square (Venue 300), 30 July – 24 August (not 13 & 20), 12:00 (13:00).  Tickets available at: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/the-alphabet-of-awesome-science