I didn’t see the promotion for this production until after I had written my summary post for fall theater productions, or I might have included it there. However, at least a short post on it is warranted.
I have previously noted that I will try to see certain local actors in anything, because they are so outstanding that even a play that isn’t on my favorites list can be worthwhile simply because of the superb acting. One of those actors is Kevin McDonald, who I first saw in the role of Malvolio, and have since seen in stuff all the way from The 39 Steps to most recently A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. So, when I saw he was doing a one-man production of Einstein: A Stage Portrait, I knew I had to see it. This was a pre-filmed stream, but done on a real set without a mask. (Safe, given the fact he was the only actor…)
Stars/BMT credits William Simms for the play, but I am pretty certain this is actually Willard Simms. Whatever the case, the play is essentially a dramatic monologue by Einstein, reflecting on his life and work and celebrity.
The play attempts to humanize Einstein, who all too often is reduced to a caricature or even a stock comedy character, the antisocial genius who is odd and amusing and anything but fully human. But Einstein was indeed human, and had all the complexities and frailties we all have. That he was a genius and revolutionized physics is indeed true. But so is the fact that Nazism and the Holocaust haunted him and led to some emotionally consistent yet outwardly contradictory political views. His first marriage failed, yet he was devoted to his second wife and regretful at the effect the split caused his children.
Central to this play is Einstein’s belief that the press, while a necessary part of a free society, has latched onto single quotes or ideas and made them into the complete picture of who he is. Which leads to misunderstandings in both directions. For example, Einstein was a pacifist. He also believed that Germany was about to develop an atomic weapon, and urged the United States to do so first. When it turned out that the Nazis were defeated before they could build a bomb, and the United States was (and still is) the only country to use atomic weapons against people, he regretted his former stance. The thing is, these are all consistent in a way. As a Jew, Einstein had to flee the Nazis, and he believed that a fascist takeover the world was a great evil. But so was nuclear weaponry, which cast a pall over the second half of the 20th Century and still poses a risk of annihilation of humanity.
Along with this conflict come rambling musings on the nature of reality, how relativity works, creativity and discovery, and, of course music.
I can’t decide if it is a good thing that McDonald never did play the violin on stage. I noticed the instrument in question appeared to be a half size, which was not a good start. So maybe it was better for all of us that he never made a sound with it. On the other hand, I might have gotten to razz him about it later. Violin was an important part of Einstein’s life, and was his connection to art and transcendence every bit as much as his beautiful theories. As he puts it in one of many actual quotes used to good effect in the play, “Life without playing music is inconceivable for me. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”
That is just one way that I see my own belief system in Einstein. I’m certainly no genius, of course, and our religions are nominally different. But I too have rejected a fundamentalist and literalist view of the divine. For example, this quote, which I had heard before, but struck me yet again:
“I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own — a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.”
In other words, a god who is really just a more powerful - and more psychopathic - human. Einstein also believed in a universe to be explored and understood, and science as a means of doing so. This is in contrast to the fundamentalist goal of protecting dogma against the onslaughts of reality that threaten it.
I had my kids watch it with me, and, although there were some slower moments in the play, they enjoyed it. Particularly the limericks, puns, and other jokes. Also, McDonald’s acting is just straight up compelling. He hit a wide range of emotional notes, and truly inhabited the character. Given the run length of the play, with zero other lines to trigger the memory, his ability to commit this complex work to heart and deliver it fully in character is amazing. It takes a true artist to pull something like this off.
The play runs through December 9th, and I strongly recommend seeing it. You can purchase tickets at bmtstars.com
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