REVIEW: Romance is the Uncertainty Principle in Delightful Love Story
Werner Heisenberg was a German physicist who in 1927 postulated that it was impossible to measure both the position and momentum of a sub-atomic particle with absolute precision – because the observation itself affects what is being observed.
And what a remarkable template this complex scientific principle serves in Heisenberg, a new play by Simon Stephens produced by Shadow Theatre. It runs in the Varscona Theatre through March 29.
This two-hander is a quirky May-December love story between a couple of very different people. Using Heisenberg to add plausibility to a rather improbable love story, natural unpredictability plays into a developing human relationship. Georgie (Amber Borotsik) is a brash and erratic 42-year-old woman from New Jersey who impulsively accosts Alex (Glenn Nelson), a painfully shy 75-year-old butcher as he sits on a bench in London, England. Suddenly she plants a kiss on his neck.
“It’s fine,” he offers hesitantly.
“No, it’s weird,” she quavers.
“No, it’s fine,” he insists.
The motor-mouthed Georgie is capricious. The words and ideas spill out of her, seemingly without much real thought behind them. Her impetuous act grows into a relationship that is at times tender, twitchy, difficult, affectionate and wary. She asks, much to his surprise, “How much should I learn about you for our first date?”
Slowly, under Georgie’s affectionate if wayward guidance the onion layers of Alex’s suspicion and restraint are peeled away. Later when she tentatively asks, “Would you like to sleep with me?” he replies enthusiastically, “I would like that very much.”
John Hudson’s understated direction and presence are everywhere in the production. The quieter moments are particularly effective as Alex notes, “Music exists not in the notes but in the spaces between.”
The age distance between the two is an obstruction to be overcome. If they forge a lasting relationship, how many Christmases will they really be able to share?
The production provides Borotsik with a lot to work with. Her character is full of life, charming and unpredictable, and this able actress taps into a full palate of emotions with precise definition. The character could very quickly become irritating, but Borotsik seems to find an unlimited authentic supply of engaging responses. Above all, she gives Georgie a subtle strength.
Nelson owns the local patent on playing irascible old coots; he played Scrooge for the Citadel. Here with his dapper, close-cropped Captain of the Titanic beard, he gradually takes on the persona of a lovable duffer delivering a portrait of a solid, decent, yet withdrawn man who has escaped hurt by disappearing into himself. Much to his own surprise, he emerges from his life-long lethargy – even to tap into a playful streak. The two performers take what might have been in other times called “a woman’s fiction” and turn it into a poignant and deeply-felt emotional experience. You hope that these two needy and vulnerable people will find the happiness they look for.
Darrin Hagen’s ingenious and subtle sound design is a plus.
Heisenberg is a quiet, surprising, and delightful romantic tale that borrows from science to provide a degree of intellectual underpinning.
