Einstein and the Polar Bear for Adelaide
In the midst of an icy winter, St Jude’s Players intend to warm the hearts of Adelaide audiences by transporting them into the blizzard-blown wilds of New England, USA. Lesley Reed reports.
When we think of polar bears we invariably shiver, partly from fear, but also because thoughts of a bleak wilderness of ice and snow come to mind. Tom Griffin’s play Einstein and the Polar Bear is set in such a place, but the story portrays a different, often comic harshness, the day to day realities and memories of a reclusive novelist. After a woman arrives at his farmhouse in the midst of a blizzard he is forced to confront the self-doubt that caused him to live alone in a remote New England landscape where only a free-roaming polar bear is truly at home.
In keeping with the theme, Adelaide’s St Jude’s Players have timed their production of this poignant comedy perfectly, coinciding with the crisp days and cold nights of August in South Australia.
Directing Einstein and the Polar Bear for St Jude’s Players is Dave Simms, a highly experienced director, actor, producer, designer and sound designer, known particularly for his work with Mixed Salad Productions. This includes the critically-acclaimed staging of The History Boys and Torch Song Trilogy, amongst other award-wining Mixed Salad shows.
Simms has cast Adam Tuominen, Norm Caddick, Allison Scharber, Peter Davies, Andrew Horwood and Shelley Hampton for St Jude’s latest production, all fine actors who are well known to Adelaide theatre audiences.
While playwright Tom Griffin is perhaps better known as an actor, he has written several plays in addition to Einstein and the Polar Bear, with The Boys Next Door possibly the best-known of these. His plays have been produced world-wide, including On Broadway, Off Broadway and London’s West End. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a CBS/Dramatists Guild Award and an Edinburgh Fringe First, amongst many accolades. Griffin is also a published fiction writer and has written several screenplays.
Einstein and the Polar Bear follows St Jude’s successful double-bill season of Heroes and With Love From The Trenches. The latter, written and directed by St Jude’s Players’ Chair Vicky Horwood, has generated such regional interest that it is likely to shortly go on tour.
With recent Adelaide Theatre Guide Awards nominations for Playing Sinatra, the ongoing success of its ANZAC Centenary commemoration production and with Dave Simms at the helm of its upcoming show, St Jude’s Players can surely expect rapid uptake of tickets for Einstein and the Polar Bear, so take my advice and purchase yours soon…you wouldn’t want to be left out in the cold.
WHEN: August 6-8 and 12-15, 8 pm. Saturday matinees, 2pm.
WHERE: St Jude’s Hall, Brighton.
BOOKINGS: www.trybooking.com/142387or call 8296 2628 (Note, this is a new booking number).
Bookings open July 22.
TICKETS:$20, concession $16.
Images: Rehearsal pics featuring cast members Adam Tuominen, Norm Caddick and Allison Scharber, with director Dave Simms in the foreground of the lower image.
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