When combining the literary talents of two renowned chemists with a guilty pleasure for theater, one must expect the unexpected.

The final result of the odd coupling is “Oxygen,” a two-act play by Carl Djerassi and Roald Hoffman.

Djerassi — known as the developer of the birth control pill — is a professor of chemistry at Stanford University. Hoffman is a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry and the Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor in Humane Letters at Cornell University.

In a Cornell press release, the two describe “Oxygen” as “a play about priority and competition in science and the moral consequences of these … about the discovery of oxygen and revolutions, chemical and political … and it is about the Nobel Prize.”

“Oxygen” alternates between 1777 and 2001, when the Nobel Foundation decides to begin awarding a “retro-Nobel” for those great discoveries that preceded the establishment of the Nobel Prizes, 100 years prior. The foundation runs into trouble when deciding who will get the “retro-Nobel” for the discovery of oxygen. There is controversy as to the recipient of the award.

One choice is Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, who seems a shoo-in: He is the father of modern chemistry and is accredited with the discovery of oxygen. The play tries to figure out if he really did discover oxygen, or if it was Joseph Priestley, the English Unitarian minister, or Carl Wilhelm Scheele, a Swedish apothecary.

Priestley was the first to publish his findings (on “dephlogisticated air”), and Scheele may have discovered oxygen (fire-air), but Lavoisier was the first to truly understand and give the name to oxygen. Djerassi and Hoffman add a realistic touch to the play, including the opinions of the three scientists’ wives.

How is such diverse subject matter all crammed into a two-act play?

Science has become an increasingly hot topic in theater over the past two or three years — seen in Michael Frayn’s “Copenhagen” and Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia” — and “Oxygen” is a great example of a play that has a lot to take in, but informs and entertains on an equal level. Djerassi and Hoffman take the facts and run with them, bringing all three men and their wives together in Stockholm in 1777. The rest is left to the eyes and ears of the observer as the play shifts between the 18th-century characters, their achievements and ambitions and the Nobel committee’s 21st-century arguments.

Director Bruce Hermann said “Oxygen” deals with universal human issues, but also leaves room for science to be introduced.

“The story is about human beings. It really flourishes with different human qualities,” Hermann said. “The story is about the character of the scientists, these great thinkers, just as much as it is about the scientific criteria.”

Even though the subject matter is weighed down with scientific information Djerassi and Hoffman keep the language simple. Hermann describes the play as “learning about science without the lecture.”

The three scientists and their individual contributions are given equal attention in the play. The inherent competition throughout the play could potentially divide the audience as far as who they want to win the “retro-Nobel.”

Djerassi and Hoffman have created strong female characters. The three wives of the scientists are very strong-willed and highly opinionated, particularly Lavoisier’s wife, who shares his passion for chemistry.

Hermann said another aspect of “Oxygen” that makes it so interesting is the idea of how much is going on in the play.

“In the play we have to take into consideration that what the three scientists have achieved is basically Chemistry 101 for us today,” he said. “The time these achievements were made was during the Chemical Revolution and just before the beginning of the Industrial Revolution … so we have to remind ourselves that when the discovery of oxygen was made, it was a time of extreme change throughout the world.”

“Oxygen” opens at 7:30 p.m. today at the Thurber Theatre in the Drake Union. Additional performances will run from Thursday until Saturday and March 4 to March 8, starting at 8 p.m, and the performance March 1st will begin at 2 p.m.