Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Insignificance’, which is at Theatr Clwyd until Saturday 15th October.
The Hadron Collider has been secretly removed from Switzerland and reassembled at Theatre Clwyd for three weeks. It’s been disguised, of course, as a ‘collision’ comedy dealing with nuclear physics, fame, fear and fanaticism. And what a fabulously funny and philosophical concoction it is.
When Marilyn Monroe died in August 1962, amongst her effects was found a love note from Albert Einstein. “With love, respect and thanks, Albert”. From this tiny scrap of evidence Terry Johnson, in 1982, created a complete play about four real American characters whose genius bordered teeteringly on madness.
It’s a sleepless summer’s night in 1953. In his New York hotel bedroom Einstein is wearily expecting a visit from Senator Joseph McCarthy who is irrationally convinced the aged professor is yet another famous figure who’s in league with the Commies. Einstein is to appear next day before the Committee for Un-American Activities…but when the grinning bully returns next morning, he finds Marilyn Monroe in Einstein’s bed, and her big-hitting baseball husband, Joe DiMaggio, hammering down the door.
Even with only two doors, this play is an absolute farce…of a hugely intelligent and exceptionally witty kind. It is a brilliantly explosive piece of writing. The four characters are universes apart – but the one thing they have in common is their inability to handle fame … or other people.
Director Kate Wasserberg is clearly having oodles of fun with this play.
Having got rid of McCarthy by telling him he ought to see a psychiatrist, there is a more gentle tap on Einstein’s bedroom door. ‘Who is it?’. “You’ll never believe me”, comes the reply. In steps Miss Monroe, hot from filming her famous billowing skirt scene across the road, and determined to prove she’s no dumb broad by explaining the Theory of Relativity to the professor who invented it. It ought to be the other way round, of course, but her explanation involves two toy trains, a pair of flash lamps, three balloons and a set of Micky Mouse ears which the professor must wear to complete the scenario. It’s a chaotically comic scene which actually makes complete sense and paves the way for an evening of equally likely absurdities. Of course the Universe is the shape of a baseball. Obviously.
The acting is simply superb. The casting of Clwyd regular Brendan Charleson as Einstein is inspired. It’s the best thing I’ve ever seen him do; beautifully modest; delivering ridiculously understated punchlines with deadly accuracy.
Ben Deery gives a crazily pent up performance as DiMaggio; full of absolute anger as his dream showbiz marriage to Munro collapses all around him. Christian Patterson is sneeringly expansive as the deluded political thug with such an arrogant agenda.
But quite rightly, this is Sophie Melville’s night. It feels like she has achieved the impossible and finally broken through the firewall that made Monroe such a mystery. She has not only captured her devastating sex appeal but also her endearing playfulness and her abject sadness at her inability to achieve any sort of privacy or to carry a baby. It is a stella portrayal of a dark star.
Somehow, at some time or other, Einstein and Monroe apparently transformed each other’s lives. ‘Insignificance’ provides an exhilarating insight into how that might just have happened. Though probably not!
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