The Physicists

"In the realm of science, there is nothing more repugnant than a miracle." Two mysteries get solved in Friedrich Durenmatt's comic-parable. Someone is strangling the nurses at a private sanatorium. The reason: one of the patients has solved the biggest mystery of all, "the gravity problem," which could unleash colossal energy. Is it the garrulous gent dressed as Isaac Newton? Or the guy with the white shock of hair calling himself Einstein? Or the mumbler in King Solomon's robes, who claims to be the German mathematician/theoretical astronomer Mobius? The solution to both mysteries leads to a greater question: who has the right to control - or even create - such godlike power? ("Now I am become Death," said J. Robert Oppenheimer quoting Vishnu, when he helped invent the atom bomb). UCSD Theatre's given the 1962 play a big, at times pyrotechnic production. All design elements, from Steven C. Kemp's decadent drawing room to Emily DeAngelis's early Sixties costumes, meld. Director Lori Petermann inverts the sane and insane characters. Just about everyone in authority (except Johnny Wu's funny, Philip Marlow-like inspector) is predictably goofy. And the alleged psychotics become rationalist philosophers. Throughout, but especially in Act one, the comedy gets pushed too hard. The cast fills almost every moment with business: how something gets said becomes more important than what. The approach, though generous and democratic, dulls the pace. The more effective performances - Amalia Fite's creepy Doktor von Zahnd, for example - keep the touches inside the character. Gears shift when Larry Herron enters as Mobius. In his excellent portrayal, when Toto pulls back the curtain he doesn't reveal a sham, but a real wizard tormented by his gifts.


Worth a try.

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