Lately, the New York theatre can't get enough of physicists and mathematicians. Uptown, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg rehash the past in Michael Frayn's Copenhagen. And now, hot on the heels of Target Margin Theater's recent presentation of a bevy of eccentric mathematicians in The Five Hysterical Girls Theorem, Soho Rep and the Ridge Theatre step in with their latest production, Mac Wellman's Hypatia, named for the 5th-century mathematician, philosopher and pagan killed by Christian monks way back in Alexandria in the year 415.

The production, which began previews May 10, and opened May 13, will close on June 3.

As Wellman tells the story, Hypatia reappears every few centuries or so to help inventors and rulers with a theoretical hint here, a new machine there. Hypatia is directed by Bob McGrath, the artistic director of Ridge Theatre, and features a cast of 15.

Wellman a downtown darling of long standing, is the author of dozens of plays, including Girl Gone, FNU LNU, Second-Hand Smoke, A Murder of Crows, Bad Penny and Infrared.

Tickets are $12-$15. Soho Rep is located at 46 Walker Street in Tribeca. For information, call (212) 334-0962. --By Robert Simonson