The Physicists, Donmar Warehouse, London
Friday 08 June 2012
Related articles
Life expectancy for a female nurse is on the low side, to put it mildly, at the Les Cerisiers, the private sanatorium in The Physicists, Friedrich Durrenmatt's absurdist tragicomedy from 1961.
Using a wittily spry new version by Jack Thorne, the play is revived now with great aplomb by Josie Rourke in a production that brings home how the piece, a quintessential product of the Cold War, is like what you might get if you were to hand over the concerns of Dr Strangelove to a team comprised of Pirandello and Stoppard.
Another nurse has just been murdered as the proceedings open. Her killer was the inmate who thinks that he is Albert Einstein (Paul Bhattacharjee). The previous fatality was the handiwork of the patient who imagines that he is Sir Isaac Newton (a very funny, campily mock-weirdo Justin Salinger). In the course of the play, a further nurse will bite the dust. Is it because they have started to rumble that the three mad men are not all that they seem? Certainly, a more suitable case for treatment would seem to be Sophie Thompson's gorgeously grotesque Dr Matilda Zahnd, the hunchbacked, dogmatic head of the institution who, with characteristic over-emphasis, declares that “I decide who my patients think they are” to the joke-detective (lovely John Ramm)
Written under the threat of nuclear annihilation, The Physicists posits an extreme Pirandello-esque scenario in which a brilliant scientist is so paranoid that mankind will use his “System of All Possible Discoveries” for evil ends that he chooses to pose as a lunatic in order to pursue pure physics clandestinely in prison. Shorn and scrawny in his pyjamas like a gaoled political dissident, John Heffernan is superlative at conveying both the wry, quixotic humanity of the man and the deep pain of the emotional sacrifices he's had to make. When he deliberately alienates his former wife and sons by running violently amok so as to ease their conscience about imminently deserting him, you feel that this is a Prometheus who has provided his own liver-gnawing vulture.
The play could seem a clever, and now rather dated series of conceits and plot-twists that lead to a stand-off that is a barmy parody of Cold War espionage and mutually assured destruction. But Rourke's achievement is to warm the proceedings with Heffernan's brilliant performance and to ensure that the dotty drolleries retain their sharp political edge. Recommended.
To July 21; 0844 871 7624
Arts & Ents blogs
Brighton Fringe 2013 – Is everyone sitting uncomfortably?
Fancy seeing a play about serial killers? How about inviting a funeral director into your home for a...
The Fall ‘Darkness Visible’ – Series 1, episode 2
There are a good many moments in the second episode of this psychological thriller that deserve refl...
‘Vicious’ – Series 1, episode 4
The opening titles squeal ‘Never Can Say Goodbye…’. Oh Lord how I wish I could heave this series off...
Travel Shop
-
Coronation Street triumphs over EastEnders at British Soap Awards 2013
-
The Hangover III star Heather Graham: I'll miss playing a sexy stripper because my real life is pretty boring
-
Hollywood practices random acts of red-carpet kindness
-
Archaeologists uncover nearly 5,000 cave paintings in Burgos, Mexico
-
Cannes Film Festival 2013: And why exactly are vous here?
- 1 Man and woman arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder victim of Woolwich machete attack, named as Drummer Lee Rigby
- 2 'Sickening, deluded and unforgivable': Horrific attack brings terror to London’s streets
- 3 Grace Dent: I’m not sure how these people can avoid being called ‘bigots’. And the more ‘civilised’, the worse they are
- 4 Woolwich murder: They killed, then they performed - these men should be starved of our attention
- 5 Woolwich attack: The EDL will seek to exploit this evil crime for their own evil ends
Get your summer started with British Military Fitness
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
Visit York
Find out what The Independent's resident travel expert has to say about one of the most beautiful small cities in the world
Making reading fun for kids
Nook is donating eReaders to volunteers at high-need schools and participating in exclusive events throughout the campaign.
Introducing the 'Get Reading' campaign
Get the latest on The Evening Standard's campaign to get London's children reading.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
The man who's eaten everywhere
The 10 Best salt and pepper sets





Comments