ALBERT'S BOY. To 13 August.
London.
ALBERT'S BOY
by James Graham.
Finborough Theatre To 13 August 2005.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 3.30pm.
Runs 1hr 25min No interval.
TICKETS: 0870 4000 838.
www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 24 July.
Relatively short play has room to pack in more.
Victor Spinetti's Einstein is a bumbling scientist, abstracted from reality, unable to find the key to his room, let alone wear two socks - never mind, matching ones - nibbling at scraps of his door-step sandwiches. It's a tactful, good-humoured performance, one that adds depth to James Graham's rather stereotypical picture of the physicist whose theoretical work translated more forcefully than others' into practicality.
It's 1953, Stalin's just died and Russia has joined the USA in possessing the bomb - the bomb, the nuclear source of devastation built upon Einstein's theories. And Einstein's student Peter Bucky (as real an original as the older man) has returned from the Korean War.
Shock-waves of awkwardness naturally follow the initial flash of delight at meeting after several years. It takes time for the two to work through their opening formality (Einstein's 'Professor' at first to Bucky, who's called 'Master Peter' in return), but eventually they emerge on opposite sides of the nuclear argument.
Einstein's all regret and guilt, but for Bucky, back from war, America's super-weapon is a net life-saver. It's an interesting argument but it's a single issue and once engaged on it playwright James Graham seems to have little interest in anything else, including the personal history of the two men's relationship. Questions about both characters could have been explored without necessarily adding greatly to a shortish play's length - there's plenty of room to make points economically and in close relation to each other.
Graham writes good dialogue and builds several scenes to a pointed climax. But as his play proceeds it becomes clear the climax is arriving while there's still plenty of potential for further discoveries about science and the psychological impact of atomic weapons on these men from different generations and with differing experiences.
The serious problem comes with Graham's 6th and final scene. Here his interest in theme over character is plain. Bucky's jettisoned as Einstein writes (and effectively recites to us) a letter to his grown-up son.
This confessional is awkwardly mixed with the spelling-out of a nuclear explosion's processes and impact; when Spinetti's Einstein takes centre-stage the play begins to look like a lecture. And when bright flashes and explosions are introduced there's a clear comparison with Terry Johnson's more complex and wide-ranging Insignificance, which also has Einstein meeting people in early fifties America (Albert's Boy includes a reference to Einstein meeting Marilyn Monroe, Johnson's other central character).
Graham certainly has plenty of a dramatist's qualities. But he needs - and the Finborough, as a premier London Fringe venue, should be looking for - more ambition in treating such a key issue and so potentially a rich a character as we have here.
Albert Einstein: Victor Spinetti.
Peter Bucky: Gerard Monaco.
Director: Max Lewendel.
Designer: Alex Marker.
Lighting: Mark Dymock.
Music: Peter Michaels.
Costume: Alena Ondrackova.
Make-up: Rachel Lidster.
Dramaturg: Lyndsay Allison.
Assistant director: Kate Wasserberg.
2005-07-27 14:46:16