The Life and Times of A. Einstein, produced by Jill Jones, opens April 10; plays Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 7 pm (in rep with Acting: The First Six Lessons); through May 10. Tickets: $15-$20. Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Los Angeles; 323.851.7977 or theatrewest.org.
Kres Mersky
Actress/playwright Kres Mersky stars in her solo one-act play The Life and Times of A. Einstein, directed by Paul Gersten, at Theatre West beginning April 10. A lifelong member of Theatre West, Mersky developed this piece at a workshop there circa 1983 as a four character play. In fact, there have been a few versions of the play: one at Taper Too at the John Anson Ford Theatre in its original form in the ’80s and one in the late ’90s, a newer one-character adaptation, closer to the current version, at the Fremont Theatre Center in Pasadena.
An interesting note is that Mersky was never really interested in science; her attraction to Einstein came from admiring the man himself. “I was just fascinated by this iconic man and just that face alone…stops you. When I think back on it, it was more of an unconscious attraction initially. But, after a lot of reading about him and his life, trying to understand his work, which I don’t really…only to a small degree, I think it was the man’s amazing courage to be able to think in a new way, think differently about some of the basic principles of science that he rejected in order to find the Theory of Relativity.
“It took enormous courage and belief in himself, the ability…the courage to not be afraid to go against the ingrained accepted theories of Newtonian physics…the Newtonian mechanical principles of nature. I think it was that courage to go his own way that I related to, there being a kind of maverick and not really caring what people thought. All of this was attracting me more than I knew.”
Einstein, of course, is not a character in the play. Mersky wrote it for herself as an actress. Einstein’s secretary Helen Dukas was consistently mentioned in every article or book Mersky read about Einstein. No personal information was given other than the fact at age 17, this German Jewish girl came to America and went to work for Einstein who had settled in Princeton, New Jersey. She moved into his house, cooked for him and performed all secretarial duties including shielding him and his personal life from the press.
Mersky as Dukas
Mersky was moved by Dukas’ complete sense of loyalty. “She wasn’t just someone who came to work every day. She became a part of the family and stayed there for the rest of her life into the ’80s. Einstein died in the ’50s but she stayed in the house in Princeton and managed his estate until her own death. What an interesting character!”
With the secretary center spotlight, she next had to decide on the form the play was to take. In her investigations at the second largest Einstein archives at Cal Tech in Pasadena, she found an article circa 1945 that talked about Einstein’s private birthday party and how he would not grant any interviews. Constantly hounded by the press, Einstein wanted to keep them off his back at all costs, so Mersky set the premise of her play at an imaginative press conference Einstein called to discuss American governmental aid to help Jews escape from Nazi Germany.
“Einstein’s late in arriving,” she explains, “so the secretary is sort of filling in until he gets there. But, he never gets there. She fields questions and it gets more complicated trying to explain his theories; then in her own funny way she gets caught up in her personal memories and frustrations of trying to run this household. Time changes during the piece and you go to two other press conferences. It goes through about 25 years so it’s a little time travel piece in one act.”
As a young actress, Mersky was always intrigued by European writers and calls Samuel Beckett her favorite playwright. She loves the absurdists and includes Sartre, Anouilh, Pirandello and American contemporaries John Guare, Christopher Durang and Murray Schisgal among those she most likes to read and see performed. She loves the offbeat humor of absurdism so she made Einstein comical as well. “As an audience member, I love to laugh and to be moved. When you can do both, it’s really kind of wonderful. Einstein‘s humor comes from the fact he was a very funny man, a real kibitzer; he loved a good joke. It’s very much in the spirit of him.”
She insists what we remember of Einstein is filtered through the secretary’s eyes. Therefore, her character remains the most memorable. “There was so much control over the Einstein image, kind of like over Tiger Woods today. The secretary constantly shielded him and his personal life from the press. Her story is so impressive. She never married and took only one vacation during her whole lifetime. What devotion!”
Feature image by Paul Gersten. Article by Don Grigware.
