It opens at the Fortune Theatre on July 8 as part of the New Zealand International Science Festival.
The actor, stand-up comedian and science communicator follows the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri's path through the nine circles of hell described in "Inferno" in his Divine Comedy.
"As we descend, we find the lustful, the violent, the gluttonous, the fraudulent and many others each suffering their own brand of eternal damnation based on the nature of their sins.
The lustful, for example are blown about just as their earthly lust blew them from one transgression to another; the gluttonous lie in a vile, icy slush produced by relentless rain - they are unaware of those suffering around them, mirroring the selfish lives they lived on Earth; some of the violent are trapped in a river of boiling blood," Krishna Pillay says.
"Dante was obviously writing hundreds of years ago, yet basically, things haven't changed.
"We have the same weaknesses and the same criticisms of each other, even though they are in a new context," he says.
In Dante's Laboratory he considers the relevance of science to the sins we encounter.
"How violent are we? Are we greedy? Why are we gluttonous? We also consider examples of `sin' in the animal and plant kingdoms - although `sin' is not the correct term.
"Acts of violence and fraud, for example, are not rare in the biosphere," he says.
"The things that have become known as sins do have an impact on society, so there's no question of relevance.
"The real question is what do we do about them and to what extent does it matter. I think that's part of the science angle."
Gluttony is particularly relevant today with the obesity epidemic and health issues, he says.
"We have a very natural instinct to eat when we can and to eat high-calorie food because, let's face it, in the jungle as it were, in pre-industrial society, you couldn't guarantee food, so when it was there you had to eat it."
During the show Krishna Pillay does an experiment with the audience looking at what affects how much we choose to eat or drink, exploring how marketers encourage us to eat more.
"It's easy to think we are completely free-willed and have lots of control, but there's ample evidence that very small cues can change quite dramatically the amount of food you eat and the nature of it."
He says the show will appeal to people who are interested in human behaviour that goes on in society without getting too heavy about it.
"While the simple facts that come up in the show might look pretty black, on the other hand anything that happens in the world eventually comes back to one thing - behaviour, and we found that empowering," he says.
"Despite all the evolutionary history, despite all the neurology, despite all the subconscious behaviour, you can make a contribution to make the world a better place."
See it:
Dante's Laboratory - The Science of Sin, with Chris Krishna Pillay and three musicians, is at the Fortune Theatre from July 8 to 10 as part of the New Zealand International Science Festival.
