The Time Machine

This afternoon we spent a very exciting hour in Moniaive at the Scientific Romance Theatre Company's production of HG Wells' The Time Machine using Bunraku puppets. Not just a play for the entertainment of children (although it was certainly that as well) but also a pioneering work of science fiction, and a comment on issues affecting Victorian society, including industrialisation, exploitation of the working classes and the building of the London Underground. I must read the book again :-)

From the programme I learned about the pioneering use o flash photography by Jacob Riis, whose images of slum dwellers in the 1880s inspired many housing reforms, and also a game called Economicon which lets players steal, cooperate, work alone or contribute to the common good, to demonstrate how different  economic models work.

Educational entertainment at its best!