By Brian Kirst
Contributing writer

Timeline Theatre Company’s production of Jeffrey Stanley’s “Tesla’s Letters” works both as a passionate examination of the bloodthirsty religious war between the Croatians and Serbians and as a monument to the real life achievements of Nikola Telsa himself.

Nikola Tesla was a Croation-born Serbian scientist whose brilliance was overshadowed by a vengeful, pompous Thomas Edison. Tesla, who immigrated to the United States in 1884, invented the powerful AC electrical current while Edison made claim to the much weaker DC variant. To assure that his name became synonymous with the discovery of electricity, Edison maligned Tesla’s accomplishments with vicious propaganda. Despite his lack of recognition, though, it has been Tesla’s AC that has truly powered the world, from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago until the present day. Tesla ultimately was credited with 700 patents by the time of his death in 1943. Some of his oft-used creations include fluorescent light and the remote control. He also invented the first functioning robot, ensuring that his followers and devoted advocates are many.

One such fictional advocate propels Stanley’s evocative and imaginative drama. Daisy, a young Virginian graduate student, arrives in Yugoslavia in 1997. Daisy has been promised full access to Tesla’s letters and papers and is eager to begin her research. Dragan, the Serbian official she has been assigned to, almost immediately presents her with alternative plans. Because of the violent warmongering between the Serbian and Croatian factions, Dragan is unable to obtain entrance to Croatia. Therefore, before she can begin her studying, Daisy must cross over into war-torn Croatia and bring back photographic proof that Tesla’s boyhood home still stands. An enraged Daisy eventually complies. While in Croatia Daisy encounters romance with Zoran, a slick street-wise youth. She also endangers herself in the mine-filled fields that infest the Croatian countryside. If she survives, though, she may discover that Dragan is not willing to uphold his end of the bargain after all.

While heavy-handed at times, Stanley ultimately creates an intriguing emotional thriller. Every character, from Daisy to her handsome young guide, has ulterior motives and perspectives. The devastation of war reflects throughout their every calculation, though, and the chilling realities behind their deceptions linger with you long after the lights have faded.

Nick Bowling directs his committed ensemble with steely verve and heightened calculation. Most impressively, his build to the cliffhanging first act is one of grand emotive fortitude.

As Daisy, the fine Tien Doman provides reckless determination and a wounded heart. Joel Stanley Huff’s game-playing Dragan is tempered with a fine sense of comedy and a deepened, almost bumbling rage. As his mother, the wise and broken Biljana, Janet Ulrich Brooks provides the sour humor and resigned patience of a woman who has endured far too much. Lastly, Jason Karasev’s cocky Zoran is loaded with the cool movie star power of current acclaimed hipsters such as Ryan Gosling. All four provide innumerable reasons to take this journey among “Tesla’s Letters.”