Playwright: Glen Berger
At: Lookingglass Waterworks Theatre
Call: (312) 337-0665; $15-$55
Runs through: March 14
This is a talky show with some directorial missteps, but also an ambitious and intelligent show. Along with Kushner and Stoppard, Glen Berger is among a handful of playwrights of wit and vocabulary creating works of dramatic weight and size. Although they take political positions and tackle cosmic questions to which no one has the answers, these plays never abandon theatrical flair and entertainment value.
Great Men of Science asks: why are we here? Berger says Love is the Great Answer to the Great Question, although our failures at/to Love invariably have us asking the Great Question again. Berger explores his theme in related one-act plays set in Paris in 1738 and 1793 respectively, at the beginning and end of the Age of Enlightenment which gave rise to both the moderate American and excessive French revolutions.
Inspired by two actual figures, Berger plays fast-and-loose with biographical fact as he riffs on science and philosophy. Jacques de Vaucanson, hero of Act I, won fame as creator of a marvelous automaton duck. Lazzaro Spallanzani, Act II's hero, made more lasting contributions disproving the theory of spontaneous generation of life from dead matter, and evidencing the fertilization of ova by spermatozoa. Doesn't sound like promising material for comedy, which these plays are, but by creating a love triangle for Vaucanson, plus a comical housekeeper who sews 29 pairs of taffeta trousers for frogs, and throwing in a brief drag turn, Berger stirs the theatrical pot and provides lively situations for layers or talk.
Trouble is, director Tracy Letts seems to have comic instincts only for irony which certainly is thick in this play. Blessed with two talented comic actors, Joey Slotnick in Act I as young Vaucanson and David Pasquesi in Act II as ancient Spallanzanni (Berger adds an 'n' to the name), Letts has them shout a great deal but rarely allows them to do funny things or say things funny. Pasquesi rises to the occasion anyhow, using his few quieter moments to breathe subtle humor and sadness into his old man. Pasquesi has an excellent foil in Lauren Katz as his justifiably-irascible housekeeper.
The flexible theater is arranged proscenium style, with a small raked stage of appropriate 18th Century reference. John Musial's Act I scenic design suggests neo-classical elegance and incorporates John Boesche's beautiful projections, which suggest music-of-the-spheres and a clockwork universe. Act II, a shabby basement laboratory, has character but confines the players and looks dangerous. But why are there glaring anachronisms, such as a bust of Richard Wagner and a 19th Century cast-iron stove? Robert Christen's lighting reinforces hope in Act I (bright) and isolation in Act II (smoky, dark). Mara Blumenfeld's costumes add color and period authenticity.