Review: (Toronto) Einstein! (Fringe)

Too Much!
by Max Gorokhovski
@MaxGorokhovski

Einstein!, written by Jack Fry and directed by Tom Blomquist, is based on documents released about the man from the Hebrew University in 2007. Jack Fry plays Einstein in this one man show that attempts to take the audience from Albert's early days all the way to his twilight, albeit with little success.

The show has two staggering problems which it simply cannot overcome. The first problem being that it has far too much history crammed into so little space and yet the story itself is dull and uninteresting. About a third of the way through the show, you will find that it has become more of a Wikipedia article being dictated at you, rather than play. Fry energetically bounces from scene to scene, monologue to monologue, but fails to alleviate the sense of boredom imbued in the audience as one dense historical fact after another pummels the audience.

The second problem stems from the fact that it is a lengthy one man show. Jack Fry really does put a hefty amount of heart and soul into each and every character. Each one is given defining characteristics and movements. Sadly at 85 minutes, Fry's energy drains, the accents and mannerisms begin to all blend together and worst of all, the real drama starts to become cheesy melodrama. Once you hit the point where you have had enough even the smaller problems become compounded. The excessive length meant that jokes that were only a little off key, suddenly became a cringe or yawn worthy shamble.

Going into this show I had been very optimistic, but by the end this reviewer was left feeling drained and bored. While full of energy, the show is light on laughs, excessive in length and nowhere as entertaining as it wishes to be. Stay at home and look up Albert Einstein on Wikipedia instead.

July 2 - 13