The Meander / Events

Art and Science Collide in Caltech’s Love Song

by Meg Rosenburg

“Do I dare disturb the universe?” is a question that haunts today’s scientists as much as it did the researchers at Los Alamos in the 1940s, and this fall, Caltech has a unique opportunity to explore its implications. As part of the Pasadena AxS Festival, Theater Arts at Caltech (TACIT) will present a staged reading of Carson Kreitzer’s The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer on October 1 in the Hameetman Auditorium in the Cahill Center.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Sponsored by the Spitzer Science Center, the performance is Caltech’s contribution to Pasadena’s biennial art and science festival, during which exhibits and performances will be open to the public throughout the city over the course of two weeks. “Pasadena is this unique place where we have great science and great art,” explains TACIT Director Brian Brophy, who will step out of his director’s shoes and on to the stage to read the role of Oppenheimer. Both the title of the play and the central question are borrowed from T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, a poem about trying to live a meaningful life in the modern era. That connection drew Brophy to the text right from the beginning. “I just love this cross-over, this borrowing, this framing device she uses with the Eliot.” A professional stage and film actor for over 25 years, Brophy was eager to participate in the reading and leave the directing to someone else. “I just wanted to jump in because I love the material so much and I just wanted to play and make thought-provoking and entertaining theater with a great group from Caltech while expanding out into the larger Pasadena area. And also because [acting] is part of who I am.”

He left the direction in the hands of longtime friend and colleague Sean K. Smith, a screenwriter, playwright, and director who has worked extensively in the L.A. area. In 2004, Brophy starred in a play written and directed by Smith for the NY Fringe Festival, “and we always swore we’d do it again,” says Smith. He jokes, “So seven years later here we are, reunited in another show about a man caught between his own genius and the forces of history.”

Written in 2003, Love Song follows the life of Oppenheimer from the founding of Los Alamos in 1943 to his death in 1967 from throat cancer. This is no dry historical drama, however. Throughout the play, Oppenheimer, or “Oppie,” is haunted by Lilith, a pervasive, often brutal, character played by former Caltech undergraduate, and recent graduate of Occidental College, Miranda Stewart. “Lilith lives in the walls and ceiling, crawling up and across chain-link fence, perching, seething, lunging, curling up to sleep, but never touching the floor,” the author says in a note about staging. She is Oppie’s constant companion, forcing him to confront the realities of his life. Only he can see her, and the two move through time and place while all other characters are fixed to some definite setting. “Lilith is this primal woman character, and she’s connected with the forces that make up existence,” Smith explains. “She sees in Oppenheimer a man who has touched that wonder...who has touched the face of God.” The examination of this relationship opens the play up into a series of moral inquiries that pulls no punches: science, religion, government, relationships, and personal responsibility are all on the line. Confident in public, Oppie is racked with doubt in private. “She’s constantly asking him, probing him, confronting him, and he is constantly trying to justify himself. And I think we often see through those justifications.”

One of the most striking aspects of the play is the incredible shift that Oppie endures when he goes from the top of the scientific world to being declared a security risk once the war has ended. “Everyone said he did a fantastic job at Los Alamos,” says Smith. “No one could have done the job he did. Then nine years later he’s being grilled in front of TV cameras as this possible traitor. The shift between those two must have been overwhelming to him.” For Oppenheimer, the choice to “disturb the universe” was never a choice; we are called to it, and yet there are consequences. “You have the power to destroy the universe and it will destroy you in return.”

As a setting for this play, Caltech is an inspired choice, and the AxS Festival couldn’t ask for a better fit for this year’s theme: “Fire and Water.” Science and the issues surrounding its application constitute a familiar subject for the researchers at Caltech, and Oppenheimer’s story gains an added poignancy given that he spent time here as a researcher and lecturer. What may come as more of a surprise is that Caltech has artistry to showcase in the reading as well as technical proficiency. Smith, who was introduced to theater at Caltech in 2008 at a reading of Rocket Girl directed by Brophy, sees this as an opportunity to introduce TACIT to the Pasadena community. “I’m always impressed with the talent of the Caltech theater community. I mean, it’s really solid. At the first audition, I was really excited because the play came alive. Every reading gave us a new angle on it and I learned something new about the play while we were working through it. That says a lot about the theatrical community that you have developed here.”

That community spans a broad range of disciplines and backgrounds, from Caltech undergraduates to JPL engineers. Love Song actors include Hui Ying Wen (JPL), Parul Kudtarkar (Staff), David Seal (JPL), Brian Brophy (TACIT Director), Miranda Stewart (Community), Crystal Dilworth (Ph. D. Student, Chemistry), Matt Luby (Staff), Mark Adler (JPL, Alumnus), and David Carrega (Undergraduate, ’12).

As the reading slowly takes shape, Brophy and Smith are gearing up for the one-time-only performance. Smith elaborates: “I keep thinking of the whole production itself as a gadget, as this bomb. We’re going to put all these pieces together and I really want it to just spark.” You won’t want to miss it when it does.

The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Carson Kreitzer, was performed as a staged reading at 8:00 p.m. on October 1 in the Hameetman Auditorium in the Cahill Center on Caltech’s campus. ]This project was sponsored by TACIT and the Spitzer Science Center.