In a post-truth world, science needs storytelling to give evidence meaning

At a time when misinformation spreads faster than facts, we face a crisis not just of truth, but of trust. Science, for all its rigour, is struggling to cut through the noise of misinformation and polarisation. What we need is not more facts shouted louder; what we need is more culture. Culture, which is breathtaking in ambition, mind-expanding in content and soul-nourishing in ethos.

This autumn, curious directive (the theatre company I’ve led for 17 years) will launch the world premiere of The Exoplanets – a collaboration with City of London Sinfonia hosted by Norwich Theatre Royal. On paper, it’s an art-science collaboration: 25-piece live orchestra, planetarium visuals inspired by NASA’s Conceptual Image Laboratory, and a human story about a woman whose grief drifts across space and time. But look again, and it’s something braver: a theatrical argument that the arts may be science’s most underused ally.

Read more:

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Scientists often assume that evidence should speak for itself. But in the real world, evidence competes with stories, and stories almost always win. Our modern world is full of people weaponising stories. The challenge, then, is not whether science is true; it is whether science is told. That is where the arts come in. Theatre, film, literature: these forms don’t weaken facts; they give them life. They transform data into experiences people can feel.

The Exoplanets does just that. Its protagonist, Audrey, isn’t an astrophysicist. She’s a mother and a creative whose mind slips between her past and the landscapes of far-off worlds. Through her imagination, we encounter lava-rained planets and storm-lashed gas giants, but also resilience, longing, and love. Suddenly, astrophysics isn’t remote; it’s intimate. The story shifts from a moment of deep grief staring into a cup of tea, all the way to a planet light-years away. This is science, but this is also a test of the stretch of the human imagination.

Our storytelling approach hasn’t come from nowhere.

It’s the latest child of curious directive’s sell-out Science Club events – an inspired series that has brought together audiences across the UK to explore everything from fungi to artificial intelligence, intimacy to rock pooling.

Our large-scale theatre shows always begin with a simple evening, spending time with scientists to explore topics, themes and ideas. We asked scientists to come and share what they’re currently working on. One night might plunge you into the microbiome of wild animals; another, into the latest research on exoplanets with professor Ruth Angus of the American Museum of Natural History. These evenings are part lecture, part performance, part communal adventure. They prove what should be obvious: when science is presented as a story – as experience – it captivates. It builds trust not by simplifying complexity but by embedding complexity in a shared human frame. The Exoplanets is a direct outgrowth of that ethos: a one-off Science Club event expanded into a full theatrical production. In other words, an experiment in how culture can carry knowledge.

The timing matters. We are living in an era of existential risk: climate instability, runaway technologies. These challenges cannot be solved without collective buy-in. Yet instead of uniting around facts, we fracture into echo chambers. The danger isn’t that people lack access to data – it’s that data without a story fails to matter. This is why productions like The Exoplanets matter. They are not escapism. They are acts of resistance against cynicism. In a theatre, sitting together as an orchestra conjures the storms of alien planets, we experience science not as a lecture but as a communal act of imagination. That matters in an age when trust in experts is eroding.

Critics sometimes accuse the arts of being indulgent luxuries. But if anything, we need them more than ever. Culture is how societies metabolise scientific knowledge. It’s how evidence becomes meaning. And right now, we desperately need meaning. curious directive has two productions touring from this autumn, one of them, The Exoplanets. Both take their cue from the Science Club ethos. Both argue, implicitly, that theatre is not a distraction from the crises of our age but a tool to face them.

We have tried leaving science to the scientists. It hasn’t worked. The truth is outgunned by better storytellers. If we want evidence to prevail, we must give it the power of narrative. That’s what The Exoplanets offers: an orchestra, a story, a cosmos of distant worlds—all harnessed to remind us that facts and feelings are not enemies but partners. At a time when disinformation thrives, theatre may be the most radical lab bench we have. You’re invited to come and join us. Come and see for yourself.

Jack Lowe is the artistic director and founder of the independent theatre company, curious directive. The Exoplanets comes to Norwich Theatre Royal on 6 and 7 September.

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