Theater Reviews

Apr 24, 2008 - Reno Little Theater presents a compelling "The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer"

By Jack Neal

Once again the Reno Little Theater takes off its theatrical gloves. In the ring this time is the company’s compelling presentation of “The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer” that chills and disturbs. “Love Song” is not the normal stuff of community theater, nor was the company’s last production, “Necessary Targets.” The company’s willingness to take on thorny issues raises the bar for dynamic theater in Northern Nevada.

As a college student, scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer returned early from a European trip with friends. Because he had hurriedly turned in a paper with ill-conceived theories before he left, he wanted to retrieve the paper before it damaged his reputation. “I have left a poisoned apple,” he quipped, “with a certain professor.”

Playwright Carson Kreitzer’s taut and timely play, “The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” uses poisoned apples as a metaphor. As with many images from Kreitzer’s play, a poisoned apple had implications far beyond a college student’s paper. In 1945, as the director of the Manhattan Project which developed the Atomic bomb, Oppenheimer - the so-called father of the bomb - created the most gargantuan poisoned apple of all time, then he spent the remainder of his life explaining his actions and intentions.

The play’s title, “The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” echoes American expatriate and poet T.S. Eliot’s 1911 poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” There’s more to the title than an echo. There’s more to expatriation than a hint. Oppenheimer’s flirtation with Communist Party members, including his third wife, Kitty, and his 1936 affair with Stanford psychology student Jean Tatlock, who committed suicide in 1944, made him a target for government scrutiny. While the government was spying on Oppenheimer, and fellow American physicist Edward Teller, the Soviets were lurking in the shadows.

At the Trinity site in New Mexico, after the first bomb was tested, Oppenheimer quoted from the Bhagavad Gita: “If the radiance of a thousand suns burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one. Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”

Because “even paranoids have real enemies,” Kreitzer’s “Love Song” scrambles back to the beginnings of Jewish mythology to find an inquisitor up to the challenge of exploring Oppenheimer’s guilt and ideas. Kreitzer’s inquisitor of choice is Lilith, who left the Garden of Eden before the appearance of Eve to protest sexual inequality. In Kreitzer’s scheme, Lilith becomes Oppenheimer’s constant inquisitor, and – occasionally – his only sympathetic companion.

The script moves spasmodically between events from Oppenheimer’s life – scenes with his wife, scientific barnstorming with his Los Alamos colleagues during the development of the bomb, a hearing to revoke his security clearance in 1954 - as he confronts his feelings of guilt and responsibility.

Director Doug A. Mishler stages this sparse production with imagination and gritty energy. Mishler’s lighting, Sam Coleman’s video clips, the musical underscoring, the simple use of costuming, all have a sizeable impact on the play’s provocative staging.

While not quite slipping entirely into the skin of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Kevin Molina provides a believable persona for his deeply conflicted character, a must for one so much at the center of Kreitzer’s cyclone of events. Rachel Sliker’s portrait of Lilith, as a destructive goddess of myth, is wonderfully strange and oddly captivating. The excellent Cathy Gabrielli is an at-times-sassy, at-times-sweet Kitty.

As the suicidal Jean, Kristen Davis-Coelho gives a quietly affecting performance. Early on Michael Peters plays the egotistical Edward Teller for laughs, a nice balance to Molina’s intense Oppenheimer. Then Peters brings Teller into much more vivid focus in his Act Two monologue. Doubling as a young scientist, and an ever-present government agent, Andrew Mowers lends solid support. As Oppenheimer’s jovial colleague, Isador Rabi, Jeff Chamberlin has the charm that pleases.

“The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer” is an important, thought-provoking play that – even if it sold out - two few people will see. George Bernard Shaw characterized democracy (sarcastically) as being the kind of government “where people get the kind of government they deserve.” Kreitzer’s play is a wake-up call for civilization, that - if taken to heart by enough people - could save humanity. Are enough people paying attention?

Reno Little Theater’s “The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer” can be seen at the Hug High School Theater, Sutro Street at North McCarran Boulevard, Reno, Nevada, April 12, 18, 19, 26 (2008) at 7:30 p.m. and April 13, 20 (the performance reviewed), 27 (2008) at 2 p.m. For information call 775-329-0661 or go online at renolittleteater.org.