Yeats was inspired by the intense simplicity of the Japanese Noh theatre, and so it is interesting that Eric Hill, whose directorial hand is strongly present in this work, also looks often to Japan. Hill has, though, and The Einstein Project bears traces of his insights and study. It is very much a collaboration of all the theatre s arts. Lighting by Melissa McLearn and sound by Jason A Tratta provide all the setting the play needs. This is a play of many short scenes that flow effortlessly into each other.
Characters live and die in the time warps.
Central to all is Einstein, physicist and man, German and Jew. He leaves Germany for America where, still insisting he is a pacifist, he writes the famous letter to Roosevelt that unleashes the horrors of Hiroshima. The play probes his conscience, exposes its frailties, lays bear his cruelty and inability to act towards others with love and compassion. The play attempts to go beyond the stereotypical image of the scientific genius who at age 42 won the Nobel prize and give us the flawed and contradictory being that he was. In doing so it deals with scenes of shattering emotional intensity.