Tesla's Letters
Critical Evaluation: **** out of ****
"Tesla's Letters," directed by Nick Bowling is an informative,
emotional play that was performed by a group of genuinely talented
actors. My method of gauging an opinion of a good performance is
if I leave a theater or finish watching a movie and really feel like I
was there with the characters. I know it is good acting if I lose
myself in the story of what I witnessed and "Tesla's Letters" did that
for me.
When I arrived at the theater, I was pleasantly surprised to see a mini museum of literature and tools that Tesla used for his research including some short films of the history of his life inventions. Clever and useful was the information as most Americans do not know the significance of who Nikola Tesla really was. I was greeted by what I thought was someone hired from the southern European area Tesla was from to help set a mood and theme for the play. It never entered my mind that this was already an actor in character that was going to perform in the play. I was so surprised and Biljana (Janet Ulrich Brooks) instantly became my favorite character and in my opinion the strongest actor in the play.
The actors nailed the character's accents to the point where I questioned if they were from that region or not. Nothing is worse than an American actor trying to use a foreign accent erroneously. There was also creative use of film displayed on stage to show travel as the theater was small but quaint. The costumes were simple yet authentic as the setting was in the late 1990's.
The play engages you through education and explanation of a dry subject that never made you feel at all bored even with the discussion of electricity and alternating currents. They really made you see and feel the despair and sadness of a country at war yet the hope of light at the end of a tunnel. "Tesla's Letters" is a beautifully performed play that is well worth anyone's time to see and become entertained as well as enlightened.
"Tesla's
Letters" runs through December 23, 2007 at TimeLine Theatre, 615 W.
Wellington Ave., Chicago.