Ada and the Engine

1830. Britain’s Industrial Revolution has dawned. The fiery, brilliant Ada Byron Lovelace, is the author of the first computer program and daughter of Lord Byron (yes, that Lord Byron). At 17 she befriends Charles Babbage, salon host and inventor of the first mechanical computer. What follows is a tempestuous collaboration wherein they envision a future where a “thinking engine” completes complex calculations. Filled with the music of Ada’s imagination, Lauren Gunderson’s (Emilie La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight, The Half-Life of Marie Curie) play is what the Cincinnati Enquirer calls “inspiring and absorbing”.