Playwright: Jake Minton, Chris Matthews
and Nathan Allen
At: House Theatre at the
Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division
Telephone: 773-251-2195; $10-$29
Runs through: Nov. 8
Usually, the 12-year-old boy comic book demographic doesn't intersect with the brainiac population that revels in higher mathematics and quantum physics philosophy. But with their high-energy, ultra-clever Dave DaVinci Saves the Universe, the House Theatre of Chicago provides something for both groups—and most everybody else as well.
Directed by Nathan Allen, the mind-bending, time-travelling, strobe-light heavy drama ( by Allen, Jake Minton and Chris Matthews ) is slickly produced entertainment and thought-provoking brain fodder. It was a massive hit for the House when it debuted in 2005, so it makes all the sense in the world that the company revisit it—if not quite in the fashion that the title character revisits the events of his life.
The fundamental conundrum is a brain scrambler: What if the you of the future travelled back in time to help the you of the past avoid a cataclysmic tragedy? One of the most provocative and hilarious moments in 'Dave DaVinci' occurs when just that happens and Dave ( Dennis Watkins, Stephen Taylor ) gapes at himself across his living room. Who could resist the chance to view the present with the wisdom of retrospect? Certainly not the troubled DaVinci, who upon meeting his future self, is elated that he has succeeded in creating a time machine and frustrated because he has no idea how he going to do so. I know. It gets complicated—the script is often akin to a metaphysical version of Abbott and Costello's 'Who's On First' routine.
The tragedy that Dave and his wife Nora ( Stacy Stoltz, Carolyn Defrin ) hope to erase ( But how can you erase something you prevent from happening in the first place? ) —is the suicide of their daughter, Perdi ( as in Perdu, the Latin root for 'lost', get it? ) . Perdi was/is a prodigy, who penned sci-fi novels about a space ship captain, Cass Meridian. While Dave is struggling to time travel ( even though he already has ) , his marriage is falling apart and the characters from Perdi's final book are on the verge of extinction, along with the rest of the universe in Cass Meridian's fictional world.
Hence, we have at least four parallel universes colliding in Dave and Nora's living room: The past, the present, the future and the fictional. The dialogue is a sharp, funny Rubik's cube of words. As was the case in the film Memento, as soon as one scene ends, you want to rewind—or go back in time—so you can see it again and clarify the context. This, by the way, is a good thing.
Time travel here is represented by a massive onslaught of strobe lights, heart-thumping sound effects and actors flailing through gauzy, ghostly curtains. The first four or so times Dave skips the light fantastic and goes through the time travelling portal, it's quite clever. Around what feels like the sixth time the tech crew launches a storm of blinding staccato lights one is tempted to roll ones' eyes at the overwrought, special-effects heavy, self-conscious drama of it all. In depicting wrinkles in time, a little less would be a lot more here.
If there's to be a sequel/prequel to Dave DaVinci, we'd nominate Arcturus as the hero. Indispensible to Cass Meridian, Arcturus is a wondrous hairy, limber-necked and absolutely lovable creature designed by Debbie Baer. Here's hoping he shows up in the future.