Scientist, performance artist, poet, comedian certainly makes for an interesting business card but for Rachel Rayner, it's all part of the show.
Rayner has been playing to sold out audiences around the country, most recently at the Adelaide Fringe where she wowed critics and took out the festival's award for best science show in 2022.
The physicist-comedian-poet triple threat is now bringing her award-winning show 'A Flying Photon' to Newcastle and Maitland this weekend, starting Saturday, April 9, at the Royal Exchange Salon Theatre with a second appearance at Studio Amsterdam on Sunday, April 10.
Rayner's performance, self-described as an "amalgamated mess of comedy and discovery" is a rollercoaster Magic-School-Bus-for-grown-ups ride, bedazzled with live experiments, nerdy puns and poetry, all dedicated to the artist's favourite sub-atomic particle - the photon.
"I love light and I've written a few kids shows about it," Rayner said, "but I wanted to share all my nerdy light appreciation with a wider audience. We are all using light all the time but in lots of ways that many of us don't even know about."
'A Flying Photon' has had critics and audiences alike impressed as it makes its way around the country, dubbed as a trail blazing fringe show with "moments of genuine wonder" (The AU Review), as Rayner takes the stage armed with a sequinned outfit, a jug of water, and seemingly boundless enthusiasm for fusing science and theatre.
Her Maitland appearance on Sunday will mark the first performance staged at Studio Amsterdam since the coronavirus pandemic hit.
"I'm so excited for that one," she said, "The space is beautiful and it's an honour to be helping bring audiences back."
Rayner has advised on science communication throughout Australia - for CSIRO, the Discovery Science and Technology Centre, Planet Art and Questacon - as well as in South Africa, where she worked for South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement.
She's also written an academic paper on science poetry - though she was first inspired to write science-based theatre by Melbourne science comedian Alanta Colley, who brought her sold-out show Days of Our Hives to Newcastle last year.
"I've been talking to lots of different science comedians since I started this journey and we all say the same thing," Rayner said. "We do it because we love science and we just want to share it with as many people as possible."
Rayner has teamed up with local cultural company, Uncapital Productions, to bring her Hunter tour to life. She met the company's creative director, Chloe Warren, at a science writing festival in 2018 and the pair have been working together creatively ever since.
'A Flying Photon' will be performed at the Royal Exchange Salon Theatre Saturday April 9, and Studio Amsterdam at Maitland Sunday April 10. Tickets are available here.
