Einstein
a Theater Review
by
Drew Kopf
August 18, 2013:
“Einstein” the new play by Jay Prasad and directed by Randolph Curtis Rand had its World Premier at The Theater at St. Clements in August produced by the Variations Theatre Group (see: www.variationstheatregroup.com) as an Actors Equity Approved Showcase. We attended the Sunday August 18th, 2013 performance and wish we could report something redeeming about the efforts put forth by artists, technicians and support staff involved in creating this play about the life of the monumental scientist Albert Einstein, but the way it has been written and directed forces us to send out two messages. One to those who might want to see it: Wait until it gets fixed. The other to the Executive Producer and Assistant Director and the leadership of the Variations Theatre Group: Get Help.
As the twig is bent so grows the tree. Mr. Prasad weaves flashbacks through his episodic approach to revealing what he must have felt were key junctures in Einstein’s life. But the dialogue he provides is clipped and uninspired, which leaves his script to the mercy of the director, Mr. Rand, whose heavy handed approach absolutely destroys whatever possible effectiveness it might have contained.
The poor actors, who surely have a lot more talent even if one judges solely by their bios included in the Playbill than they were allowed to demonstrate on stage in this production, must have been “directed” (read: forced) to perform all sorts of “business” that Mr. Rand believed would help get across the points he was trying to make to the audience. It was like watching time-lapse photography in away. The actor would say a line in character and then, it was as if some bell or light went off to stop the action. The “acting” would stop. The actor would then jump up on a table, or twirl around on his feet, or some other kind of action that came from way out in left field, after which he or she would look at the audience as if to say, “Get it?” and then continue his or her lines. Ugh.
Richard Kent Green as Einstein just gets rolling before when he turns and crosses to … nowhere and for absolutely no reason to deliver the rest of his line. Why? Nobody knows; except perhaps for Mr. Rand. The same is true of Grant Kretchik who plays Besso in the first Act, a friend of Einstein. He plays with a hat and a walking stick in all sorts of non-traditional and totally invented ways that do nothing to help us understand the character he is playing or the message of the play if there even is a message. Jill Catherine Durso, who plays several parts, but who is memorable at one point as Einstein’s first wife Mileva when she reminisces with “Albert” about how they became involved with each other romantically, a rare, perhaps the only moment where we could see a sensitivity and an emotional exchange that was an unfettered acting moment and a nice one indeed. Sheilagh Weymouth gets through her moments playing Einstein’s mother suffering moment by moment with all sorts of silly directorial stuff to do like a puppet being jerked around on strings from above. But, she too has a small flash of freedom when playing Elsa, Einstein’s second wife, when she reminds him of how sweet a relationship they must enjoy together and Mr. Green as Einstein acknowledges her positively. Not enough to balance out the rest of the performance but enough to show us that the problems were not emanating from her or the other actors working with her. The rest of the troupe is held too tightly in the clutches of the director to offer even a twinkle of acting brilliance that they may have performed. Or, if such a special moment did take place it might have happened so quickly that we missed it.
We sat through an entire Act of just that kind of disjointed and stilted acting, which is really hardly fair to call it that since the actors, every single one of them, were acting as if they had one arm and half their creativity tied behind their backs by Director (read: dictator) Rand. It really is a shame because the idea of a play about the life of Albert Einstein that would give us some insight into what made such an amazing person tick is something anyone would appreciate. But done as the Variation Theatre Group has done it as it stands now would make sitting through another Act absolute torture.
The script of “Einstein” might well be viable but we will never know until it is freed from the directorial strangle hold currently tying this production in knots. (30)
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