Playwright: Mark St. Germain. At: Northlight Theatre 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie. Tickets: 847-673-6300 or Northlight.org; $30-$81. Runs through June 18
Does being a great man demand that he also be a good man? Artistic Director BJ Jones poses this question through this, an offering by the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere Program. In this riveting 85-minute one-act, audiences come to know Albert Einstein, not simply as the great scientist, but as a man.
This is a penetrating look at family, ambition and choices.
Mark St. Germain's new play again demonstrates his mastery at bringing famous historical characters to life, crafting them into real, flesh-and-blood human beings. This prolific playwright has worked his literary magic in other plays, portraying the likes of Edison, Ford, Freud, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. Here, he humanizes Einstein, a beloved scientific hero to many. But the playwright also shows that he was a deeply complicated and difficult man. St. Germain creates a fictional situation that challenges our preconceived notions of who Einstein was and depicts an interestingly textured and compassionate portrait of this brilliant man.
Just after the turn of the last century, Albert married his first wife, Mileva. In 1902 they had a baby daughter, whom they named Lieserl. The child contracted scarlet fever, a disease that, at that time, often resulted in serious complications. After 1904 the baby was never seen, heard of or spoken about, and her fate remains a mystery.
Upon learning of this, St. Germain became intrigued. He learned that the little girl's existence was only discovered when, following Einstein's death, letters between Albert and Mileva were found among his possessions. Theories circulated about Lieserl's fate, but the playwright imagined the events portrayed in this exciting drama. Years after Einstein's great Theory of Relativity was published, a young reporter approaches the great man and challenges him with many personal questions. During this imaginary interview at Princeton University, Einstein must confront his past while defending whether being great also requires that he be good.
BJ Jones has guided three of Chicago's finest actors to tell this mystery story. The cast is led by the commanding performance of Mike Nussbaum, a familiar face around Chicago's theater world, as Einstein. He underplays the expected grandeur of the scientist, instead creating a real, honestly-played human being. Katherine Keberlein is wonderfully strong and effective as reporter Margaret Harding; and Ann Whitney brings unexpected humor to this drama as dour, feisty housekeeper, Helen Dukas.