Tale of Serbia's gloom unfolds in 'Letters'
One fascinating moment in history is captured, but details sometimes get in way

by Hedy Weiss
Theater Critic, Chicago Sun-Times
published November 15, 2007

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TimeLine Theatre invariably sets its lobby abuzz with elaborate, informative displays supplying crucial background for the historically inspired plays it favors. But it has gone one step further for its latest show, Jeffrey Stanley's "Tesla's Letters" -- a tale set against the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, that also delves into the life of Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), the Croatian-born Serbian-American scientist responsible for the transmission of electricity as we know it.

This time, the lobby has been transformed into a little museum devoted to Tesla's life and inventions. And on hand to welcome visitors is an exceedingly self-possessed, middle-aged Serbian guide, Biljana (actress Janet Ulrich Brooks, whose low voice, blunt hairdo and gray suit are precisely on target).

Having spent months in Belgrade in 1997, coincidentally when the play is set (after the Dayton Peace Accords ended the fighting in Bosnia, and as student protests challenged Slobodan Milosevic), I can attest to the authenticity of style and attitude in Stanley's play, which taps into the deep sense of loss, bitterness and resentment felt by many Serbian intellectuals of the time.

But while it is smart and insightful, the play also is problematic, despite a very able quartet of actors under the sure hand of director Nick Bowling. Though filled with believable characters, it comes weighed down, perhaps of necessity, by far too much background information.

At the play's center is Daisy Archer (Tien Doman), a twist on a Henry James-like American innocent abroad. A scrappy doctoral student writing a thesis on Tesla, Daisy was promised full access to the scientist's letters by Biljana's son Dragan (an ideally volatile Joel Stanley Huff), director of the Tesla Museum. But upon her arrival in Belgrade, where anti-U.S. sentiment is high, Dragan opts to test her mettle, demanding she embark on a potentially dangerous mission to Croatia to discover whether Tesla's birthplace has been destroyed. Her "guide" is Zoran (handsome, charming Jason Karasev).

With Serbia now still in a state of brooding unrest, "Tesla's Letters" remains intriguing, despite its flaws.