JOE CALLERI REVIEWS - EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH, An Opera in Four Acts.

What – EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH, An Opera in Four Acts

Where and When – The Arts Centre, Melbourne from 31 July, 2013 to 04 August 2013.

Reviewer - Joe Calleri.
Stars – 4.  

The Trial Scene from Einstein on the Beach. Image by Stephanie Berger.

Full Disclosure - I attended the opening night of this production on a complimentary ticket as the guest of a media invitee.

Robert Wilson and Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach is a four and a half hour long, pulsing, mesmeric, meditative, mind-bendingly epic journey into a fourth dimension of light, sound, movement, and wonderful stage magic.

Devoid of conventional narrative and through line which may alienate many prospective theatre goers, Einstein fuses Philip Glass’s eclectic, often repetitive musical score, Robert Wilson’s inspired direction, and timeless, wondrous stage design, poetry by Christopher Knowles, Samuel M Johnson and Lucinda Childs, ballet (choreography by Andrew de Groat), and opera, with an obsessive, perfectionist, wonderful attention to detail that I have rarely seen displayed in a theatrical performance.

Watching this work, and contemplating some of its pressing contemporary themes including conformity in manner, in dress and in action, android-like dehumanisation, mindless repetition of tasks, phrases, sound bytes and news stories on constant 24 hour loops, it is hard to believe it was first performed in France, in 1976.

Together, Glass and Wilson have set about exploring and then exploding Einstein’s life, his massive intellect and his complex, ground-breaking theories on gravity, relativity, quantum mechanics, space and time, and life itself, into tiny fragments, and then ever so intelligently, elegantly and creatively laid those fragments out into eleven performances.

So, we have Einstein appearing during the performance either in projected photographs, or portrayed (complete with trademark white hair and brush moustache) by wonderful solo violinist - and one of the stand-out stars of this performance - Antoine Silverman. Einstein was a proficient violinist with a love of Mozart’s sonatas.

But, it is the complex, befuddling complexity of time itself that so intrigued Einstein, and Glass and Wilson have attempted to explore this concept theatrically: a train appears to travel at a glacial pace, performers repeat gestures and expressions, and banal, routine, nonsensical words, expressions, names, and number sequences (1,2,3,4,5,6) are repeated in perfect, loop-like, infinite patterns.

Given the duration and complexity of this work, you will be amazed at the skill, dexterity, patience, physical endurance, and commitment to perfection of the scores of performers on stage and in the orchestra pit. While I have singled out Silverman earlier in this review, the sum of each performer (including young Jasper Newell) contributes equally to the whole.   

Lest you believe you are stuck in the theatre for the entire marathon running time, audiences have the opportunity of leaving the theatre and returning to the performance whenever they wish. On the night I attended, 8pm seemed a popular time for many audience members to take a nature break, stretch their legs, or leave the theatre not to return.

No, this piece is not universally accessible; some will find it cold, aloof, high-brow and conceptual, bewildering, frustrating, impenetrable, alienating. But, if you are prepared to invest your hard-earned time, Einstein will reward you with one of the theatre world’s most remarkable and unforgettable theatrical experiences.

- Ends -