Just about every work of historical fiction takes liberties with the facts, but some take more liberties than others.
“Isaac’s Eye,” Lucas Hnath’s play about 17th-century scientist Isaac Newton, takes a lot. It’s more fable than documentary.
But this play, now at Writers Theatre, is completely upfront about that. It tells you right away: Most of this is made up. It also tells you that a few bits and pieces of the story are true. The actors will write everything that’s true in chalk on the theater’s walls. At the end of the show, when you look over those facts written in chalk, you realize just how sketchy of a history they outline. “Isaac’s Eye” fills in the gaping holes with comical absurdities and intelligent debate over scientific and personal ethics.
It’s all quite captivating. Directed by Writers Theatre’s artistic director, Michael Halberstam, this Midwest premiere makes no pretense of putting the actors in period costumes. Newton’s hair turned white by the time he was in his 20s, but the actor playing him, Jürgen Hooper, has short, dark hair. The actors don’t bother speaking in English accents. Instead, they sound like people you might run into on the streets of Chicago, casually dropping the F-word into their everyday conversations.
Hooper portrays Newton as an ambitious, obsessive nerd who has trouble relating to other people—or telling the truth. Elizabeth Ledo plays his potential wife Catherine, vividly capturing this commonsensical character’s frustration. Marc Grapey is roguishly charming but disturbingly shifty as Newton’s scientific rival, Robert Hooke. And as the play’s narrator, LaShawn Banks deftly guides the audience through the whole strange affair.
The way these four interact is what makes “Isaac’s Eye” so entertaining. They keep the science interesting, raising intriguing points about the way people’s preconceived notions can affect the results of experiments. And even though the narrator keeps telling you that most of this story is a lot of ether, you end up caring about these patently fictional people. That’s the true test of this wonderful theatrical experiment.
“Isaac’s Eye” continues through December 7 at Books on Vernon, 664 Vernon Ave., Glencoe. For tickets and details, visit Writers Theatre’s website or call 847-242-6000.
Top right photo by Michael Brosilow.
