Experience the NZ premiere of ÉMILIE at Auckland’s Q Theatre. A story of ambition and love, step into 18th-century France and meet a remarkable scientist who has mostly been forgotten, and her great love Voltaire.

What: ÉMILIE by Sophie Lindsay
When: 19th September–23rd September 2023
Where: Q Theatre Loft

Paris, summer 1733. Émilie’s work has stalled and she can’t face another social event in the gossip-fuelled capital. Little does she know she is about to fall in love with a famous poet. Little does he know, he is about to meet his intellectual match – an extraordinary woman, a scientist, who will change his life forever.

“Judge me for my own merits, or lack of them, but do not look upon me as a mere appendage to [my husband] or that famed author [Voltaire]. I am in my own right a whole person.” – Émilie du Châtelet.

Ten years after her death, Émilie’s translation of Newton’s Principia from Latin into French was published. While it is still the main translation used today, she is either forgotten or recognised as ‘the mistress’ of Voltaire, one of France’s most revered philosophers and writers.

It’s time to tell Émilie’s story.

Writer, composer and director, Sophie Lindsay shares, “Émilie’s story is universal in its specificity. Throughout history, extraordinary women have been overshadowed by men, and not only in science.”

With high-energy, comedic performances and an original soundtrack performed live, Sophie hopes that ÉMILIE will “delight and inspire audiences, and prompt us to reflect on whether our attitudes have changed today.”

ÉMILIE premieres at Q Theatre Loft from Tuesday 19th September, until Saturday 23rd September. Tickets are $39–$45. Learn more and get your tickets here.

Photography credit: Billy Wong
Graphic design: Gus Garcia