By snoadmin
The California Repertory Company shows its second play of the season,;another historical play about scientists who were involved with the Manhattan Project.
In September, the Cal Rep Company held a performance of “The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” about the father of the atomic bomb. The play had intense, scientific dialogue accompanied by profound acting with an interesting storyline. Unfortunately, its sequel, Paul Mullin’s “Louis Slotin Sonata” forces the audience to listen to more physics jargon, while trying to keep up with the already-complex content of the play.
Before the start of the play, the actors who play the scientists participate in a pre-show for the audience. The actors interactively question audience members walking through the detoured entrance of the theater. This provides an interesting preview to the show. It captures most audience members’ attention and prepares them for a night of historical science with quirky nuclear physicists.
“That was freaky,” said audience member Courtney Brown at Tuesday night’s performance. “I felt like I was back on the Queen Mary’s Haunted Shipwreck, and they were going to attack me.”
The play begins with the actors behind a large plastic curtain, which creates an experimental science lab environment. The actors come off-stage, one-by-one, through the center of the plastic curtain. The remainder of them speak simultaneously behind the curtain, making it difficult for audience members to understand the content of their dialogue and the play.
After a long and drawn-out introduction with a closed curtain, the lighting finally changes the scene by flashing through the plastic curtain, providing a silhouette effect. Although the scene has a unique lighting effect, it seems about 20 minutes too long.
Eventually, the curtain drops after Canadian physicist Louis Slotin (Josh Nathan) accidentally sets off a nuclear reaction that releases a massive amount of radiation. But because he ends the reaction in time to save the lives of his colleagues, he is depicted as a hero in United States history. The play shows how the incident affected Slotin through the lens of his own personal thoughts.
The Royal Theater is arranged where all audience members face the stage. Unfortunately, actors continuously come off stage and run up and down the isles, forcing audience members to constantly turn away from the stage.
While some actors perform from the isles, others remain on stage and continue to perform. This causes mass confusion for audience members since they do not know whom to pay attention to — the scientist rambling next to them, or the scientist rambling on stage.
Although this play is strange, confusing and slightly boring, the actors themselves perform well and keep the audience engaged — until a random musical number about a Nazi camp leader stirs everyone to ask, “Why is this necessary?”
There is no sign of music or dancing throughout the first hour of the play. Suddenly while Nathan is in a trance state due to medication and sleep, he begins to imagine himself as the Auschwitz camp leader, because of a World War II book he was reading. Slotin begins dancing and singing with a Eastern European accent and the rest of the scientists are back-up singers. It becomes extremely difficult to take this play seriously after Slotin turns his hat sideways and begins to rap about the issue.
As a joke, which no one seems to understand, one of the scientists (Simon Brooke) abruptly stops the performance and acts offended by the musical number, breaking the fourth wall of theater. Brooke refuses to continue the show and storms out of the theater while cussing and arguing with Nathan.
The nurse (Alex Billings), the only woman in the show, successfully brings the play back together after Brooke’s dramatic exit. Even though she has to participate in the ridiculous musical number, her acting is still taken seriously.
Disclaimer: The Daily 49er is not responsible for Postings made on www.daily49er.wpengine.com. Persons commenting are solely responsible for Postings made on this website. Persons commenting agree to the Terms of Use of the website. If Postings do not abide by the Rules of Conduct or Posting Regulations as listed in the Postings Policy, the Daily 49er has all rights to delete Postings as it deems necessary. The Daily 49er strongly advises individuals to not abuse their First Amendment rights, and to avoid language suggestive of hate speech. This site also encourages users to make Postings relevant to the article or other Postings.
