Can I get you anything?
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 Tesla himself. CONT’D
Tale of Serbia’s gloom unfolds in ‘Letters’
One fascinating moment in history is captured, but details sometimes get in way
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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. CONT’D
Among the many reasons to be heartsick at the state of the Chicago Transit Authority is its continued reliance on direct-current motors to drive its trains. As the CTA has been saying for years, it needs to convert to the alternating-current propulsion system used in New York and Washington. Nimble AC trumps dogmatic DC every time. But what, you’re surely thinking, do the myriad woes of the CTA have to do with “Tesla’s Letters,” a play by Jeffrey Stanley at Chicago’s TimeLine Theatre about the eccentric Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla?
Plenty. Tesla was the father of that superior AC current. But when he tried to push his work in the United States, he ran into the existing brand name in electricity invention, one Thomas Edison, who wasn’t about to share that glory. Edison did his best to discredit Tesla, at one point even turning him into a digger of ditches for the then DC-driven Edison Co.
That’s worth a play in itself. But Stanley went further in his 1999 drama, seeing America’s shabby treatment of the Croatian-born but proudly Serbian Tesla as a metaphor for its lack of interest in the genocidal conflict of the 1990s that ripped apart Yugoslavia and resulted in the deaths of more than a million people. CONT’D
War & peace, science and humanity come together in a suspenseful drama
Timeline Theatre’s slogan: “Yesterday’s stories, today’s topics,” is amply present in Jeffrey Stanley’ssemi-autobiographical drama, Tesla’s Letters. This is a suspenseful and well written drama that combines recent history of the 1990’s breakup of Yugoslavia with a profile of Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), a Croatian born Serbian inventor.
“What first drew me to Tesla’s Letters was the insight it gave into both the life of Nikola Tesla and the violent division of Yugoslavia in the mid ‘90s,” said director Nick Bowling. CONT’D
