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One for Al
"Einstein's Dreams" is an evocative and expertly staged — if not naturally dramatic — exploration of the imagination of the young Albert Einstein.
By JOSHUA TANZER
Offoffoff.com
(Originally reviewed at the New York Fringe Festival in August 2001.)
"Einstein's Dreams," like the book it is derived from, is a series of meditations on the variable nature of time.
It starts with the young patent clerk Einstein dozing off at his desk, and leaps from one dream to the next, each dramatizing what life would be like if time went backwards, or very fast, or very slowly, or at different rates for one person than another.
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| EINSTEIN'S DREAMS |
Written by: Ralf Remshardt, David Gardiner and Paul Stancato.
Directed by: Paul Stancato.
Based on the novel by: Alan Lightman.
Cast: Charlie Coniglio, Drew D'Andrea, Leigh Elliot, Jennifer Sorika Horng, Joe LaRue, Rebecca Olympia, Brian Rhinehart, Tamar Scheonberg, Elizabeth Wolf.
Choreography by: Paul Stancato.
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| SCHEDULE |
Kraine Theater
85 East 4th St. near 2nd Ave.
SF -- The Sci-Fi Event, Oct. 17 - Nov. 4, 2001
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| RELATED ARTICLES |
Fringe Festival 2001
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• Debbie Does Dallas
• Doing Justice
• Einstein's Dreams
• The Elephant Man: The Musical
• Equal Protection
• Fifty Minutes
• Fuck You or Dead Pee Holes
• Gene de Tueur
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• Imperative Flight
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• Loader #26
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• Sic
• Snapshot
• Take
• Two Girls from Vermont
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Dance
• Absolutely Abreast
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• I Dance
Art
• Studio
Other Fringe Festivals
• Fringe 2000
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In one of the most interesting episodes, we are asked to consider a world in which a day is the length of a lifetime. In this world, our perceptions would be completely different. A person born at sunset would grow up in total darkness and probably become homebound and bookish; a person born at sunrise would grow up in constant daylight and become outdoorsy, perhaps disdaining book learning.
This meditation is not farfetched, in fact, because there are species on earth that live only a day — we just don't happen to be one of them, so we don't think about the implications on our lives.
There's plenty more to contemplate in the stage version of "Einstein's Dreams." It's a very thinky show and not ideally suited to the stage because there's no drama. But the production is quite creative all around, using costume, props, lighting and choreography to paint Einstein's circa-1905 imagination.
The nine actors are dressed entirely in white and off-white, and they're illuminated by clear bulbs hanging from the ceiling, which are usually powered at half-strength, producing a mild yellow light. The effect is a sepia-toned world that underlines Einstein's leaps of intellect in an age when the automobile had barely been invented, never mind the semiconductor and the radio telescope.
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AUGUST 14, 2001
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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