Peter Christian Hansen and Alex Galick Photo by Alyssa Kristine

This is not to say that The Physicists is a perfect play. It is a fascinating, provocative, and darkly absurd play that raised a topic of existential importance at the time of its writing. If that topic, the power to annihilate the planet using the amassed work of physicists (who, the play suggests, may also be lunatics), is of less immediate concern today, that is not because the threat of nuclear war has lessened–consider how many more nations have their own nuclear bombs today than in 1962–but other sources of annihilation, such as climate change, have come to seem even more ominous. The enduring weight of Dürrenmatt's message aside, the play is a collection of theatrical gambits, some of which work, others which do not.

The setting is an insane asylum run by keenly eccentric and exceedingly hunchbacked Fräulein Doktor Mathilde von Zahnd (Sara Marsh). Doctor von Zahnd has separated three special patients out from the others, the three all being physicists. They are Beutler (Peter Christian Hansen), who is insane by virtue of his belief that he is Sir Isaac Newton; Ernesti (Pierce Bunting), whose insanity lies in his claim to be Professor Albert Einstein, even to the point of, like Einstein, playing the violin; and Möbius (Alex Galick), a physicist who does not claim to be anyone but himself, though he does claim to be in direct communication with the ancient King Solomon, who gives direction to the course of Möbius' life.

As the play opens, two of these three physicists has had occasion to murder one of the asylum's nurses. These crimes greatly alarm police inspector Voss (Jason Ballweber), but Doktor Von Zahnd waves them off as the actions of men known to be insane, and therefore beyond being held responsible. Only later, when the third of the physicists attacks a third nurse, does the doctor respond with shock and anger. The difference in this case is revealed through the play's second act, in which the physicists' secret identities and true purposes, and the doctor's hidden agenda, all come to light. At this point, the germane question becomes whether it is too late to avert the worst of outcomes.

Dürrenmatt slyly reveals the subject at the heart of his play, teasing us through the first act, which primarily impresses as black comedy, with humor imbedded in the off-kilter declamations from Beutler/Newton and Ernesti/Einstein, the peculiar demeanor of Doktor von Zahnd, and the physically broad antics of a troupe of crime-scene subordinates–police doctor, police officer, and police photographer–attempting to follow orders from an increasingly grouchy Inspector Voss. This last business is amusing, but feels tacked on to lighten the play's darkness, whipping up a dollop of amusement but not adding to the thrust of the narrative. The first act's only show of poignancy comes when Möbius' ex-wife Lina Rose (Noë Tallen) appears with their children to say farewell to their father before they depart, with her new husband, to do missionary work in the south seas.

The second act pivots to a more rhetorical mode, as we learn the true motivation behind each of the primary characters' actions, and questions regarding the role and responsibility of science both in discovering increasingly dangerous sources of power and in protecting the world from the malevolent use of that very power. Once laid bare, the arguments on both sides are easy enough to understand, more so if one considers the play's initial context of 1962 cold war power dynamics, and the not-so-distant shadow of extreme fascism that brought about World War II.

The second act still maintains a comedic edge, such as when a duel by pistols is introduced (Doesn't sound funny? See for yourself). Dürrenmatt also introduces three male guards to replace female nurses deemed, by Inspector Voss, inadequate to control these patients with a penchant for murdering nurses. While the guards' militaristic behavior is presented in a burlesqued comic vein, the iron-fisted demeanor–especially Jack Bechard as their fierce captain–offers an insight into the results of letting anti-social behaviors (e.g., the murder of nurses) go unchecked. And yet this shtick, like the comical police team, feels extraneous and wears thin.

Each member of the cast is ideally suited for their role. Galick is particularly wonderful as Möbius, the character that rather anchors the play throughout. Galick persuasively express the conflict that has sent him into hiding from the world, with emotions that feel genuine throughout. Hansen is amusing as Beutler/Newton, exhibiting the playfully detached air some of Newton's biographers attribute to man who "discovered” gravity and inertia. Bunting's Einstein comes across as a somewhat kvetching genius. When they drop their famous facades and portray the devious physicists Beutler and Ernesti, respectively, Hansen and Bunting demonstrate the absurdity of blind loyalty to a cause which they can't really vouch for beyond the fact that it is their side of the geo-political divide.

Marsh cuts a comical swath as Fräulein Doctor Mathilde von Zahnd, replete with her own brand of eccentricity that is equal parts cheery and sinister. This strong sense of the absurd nature of this character tips off the audience from the start to withhold our trust in this doctor. It is a marvel that Marsh, an actor with erect posture, manages two acts in a stooped hunchbacked position. I looked for a chiropractor on the creative team roster, but alas, none is named. Ballweber is a delight as gruff Inspector Voss trying to push past the doctor's cavalier dismissal of the murders and to treat them as serious crimes. Later he is an even greater delight as he succumbs to the doctor's outlook. Of the other cast members, Riley Boales makes a striking impression as a steel-spined nun and as a nurse who is in love with Möbius and tries to persuade him to rejoin the world.

Allison Vincent directs this production with a clear hand, drawing out comedic elements throughout, and giving the more serious moments their due. Vincent steadily rides the shift from what feels purely comedy of the absurd at the beginning to the introduction of weighty ideas. Marsh, in addition to her performance and her role as artistic director of Dark & Stormy Productions, designed the well-conceived costumes. Michael James designed the simple but functional setting, the stark day-room of a mental institution, along with the props. Aaron Newman's sound design and Shannon Elliot's lighting design both serve the production well.

At the end, The Physicists leaves us wondering if such a cynical and devious world can ever achieve a better outcome than that which visits our three physicists. In the sixty-two years since the play's appearance there have been moments when glimmers of light seemed to illuminate a brighter path ahead, only to turn the corner and find ourselves back in the shadows. Given the decades our species has had to ponder these possibilities, both hopeful and defeatist, Dürrenmatt's theme does not pack as bruising a punch as it must have in its first performances.

Nonetheless, the play is well crafted by the playwright, given sparkling direction by Vincent and performed by a top caliber cast. Beyond that, it is well worth seeing for the questions and conversations it is still likely to provoke.

The Physicists runs through September 15, 2024, at the Gremlin Theatre, 550 Vandalia Street, Saint Paul MN. For tickets and information, please call 612-401-4506 or visit www.darkstormy.org.

Playwright: Friedrich Dürrenmatt; Translator: James Kirkup; Director: Allison Vincent; Scenic and Props Design: Michael James; Costume Design: Sara Marsh; Lighting Design: Shannon Elliot; Sound Design: Aaron Newman; Stage Manager: Haley Walsh; Producer: Sara Marsh

Cast: Jason Ballweber (Richard Voss), Jack Bechard (Police Doctor/Jork-Lukas/Uwe Sievers), Riley Boals (Marta Boll/Monika Stettler), Isaac Bratt (Blocher/Adolf-Friedrich), Pearce Bunting (Ernst Heinrich Ernesti [Einstein]), Alex Galick (Johann Wilhelm Möbius), Peter Christian Hansen (Herbert Georg Beutler {Newton]), Sara Marsh (Fräulein Doktor Mathilde Von Zahnd), Samuel Osborne-Huerta (Guhl/Wilfried-Kaspar/Murillo), Keegan Robinson (Oskar Rose/McArthur), Noë Tallen (Frau Lina Rose).