The History (and Mystery) of The Universe
November 19, 2008 11:37 amLast night I saw D.W. Jacobs’s play, R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of The Universe at Portland Center Stage. The performance was in the smaller Ellen Bye studio, which was the ideal way to watch actor Doug Tompos’s intimate portrayal of Fuller.
Jacobs and Tompos thoughtfully animated one of the 20th century’s most stunning thinkers, humanizing Fuller, and escorting the audience through his ideas with simple, elegant visuals. The inventor of the geodesic dome, a godfather of environmentalism, a humanist, and a Utopian — Fuller responded to the mysteries and personal tragedies in his world through vibrant, applied imagination. I felt the play did a wonderful and fair job in teasing out intellectual ironies or conflicts, such as Fuller’s stubborn individualism and his belief that humans exist to benefit one another. The 2-hour running time (with a 15-minute intermission) went by surprisingly fast.
R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of The Universe runs through Dec. 7.
Here’s the trailer [which makes the play look bad, I realized after posting it]:
No Responses to “The History (and Mystery) of The Universe”
Care to comment?