{"id":19457,"date":"2016-03-13T20:15:23","date_gmt":"2016-03-13T10:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=19457"},"modified":"2016-03-13T20:15:23","modified_gmt":"2016-03-13T10:15:23","slug":"dear-albert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=19457","title":{"rendered":"Dear Albert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"alanalda\"<\/a><\/p>\n

T<\/span>he World Science Festival is an annual event that began in New York in 2008. \u00a0It’s stated goal is to raise awareness and promote\u00a0science to the general public.<\/p>\n

In a major coup for our local community, somehow it was decided that the 2016\u00a0instalment would be held in Brisbane, Australia. \u00a0Hey, I’m not complaining.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of fascinating looking exhibits and events<\/a><\/strong> that are held over the week. \u00a0There is a broad range of topics to explore from artificial intelligence to robotics to dinosaurs to saving the Great Barrier Reef.<\/p>\n

On Friday, I was fortunate enough to see the opening night of\u00a0Dear Albert<\/em>, a play written by Alan Alda (M*A*S*H, The West Wing<\/em>) about the life and times of famed scientist Albert Einstein. \u00a0Although Alda was not a performer in the production, he opened the evening and held a conversation with physicist Brian Greene at the closing of the show to discuss some of Einstein’s work.<\/p>\n

As Alda explained in his introduction, Einstein is something of an enigma. \u00a0He is perhaps the most famous scientist in the world but little is known about his private life. \u00a0But he cuts an intriguing figure with his signature\u00a0hairstyle and the widely seen photos of him cheekily poking his tongue out. \u00a0He’s also been co-opted for a bunch of internet memes quoting his theological musings. \u00a0Who is this guy?<\/em><\/p>\n

This play is constructed by Alba but a lot of it is transcribing Einstein’s own words from the letters he exchanged with the various women in his life. \u00a0Einstein, is turns out, was quite the womanizer. \u00a0His veracity for scientific exploration was seemingly only matched by his fondness for courting women.<\/p>\n

\"dearalbert\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Dear Albert<\/em> is a performed by three actors on stage exchanging letters. \u00a0Despite the sedentary stage direction I was completely absorbed by the readings of Einstein’s letters. \u00a0His first serious relationship was with a student named Maric – the only girl in his class. \u00a0Einstein’s flirtation in his letters show him to be confident, persistent and playful. \u00a0The exchanges are written in an eloquent turn of phrase that veer between explanations of scientific hypothesis and asking a girl out for a sausage and a cuppa.<\/p>\n

It’s revealed in the letters that Einstein and Maric had a child named Lieserl whose fate is unknown. \u00a0It is presumed that she was either adopted or died of scarlett fever. \u00a0Einstein eventually marries Maric and they have two sons together but within five years, their relationship is strained to breaking point.<\/p>\n

Einstein rekindles a relationship with a woman named Marie but is frustrated when Maric won’t grant him a divorce. \u00a0These exchanges are written in pretty terse, eyebrow raising exchanges as Einstein bluntly barters his money and possessions in the hopes of being granted his marital freedom. \u00a0Amazingly – and I believe truly – he offers Maric the winnings of the Nobel Prize for Science which he is yet to win but believes is a shoe-in to claim. \u00a0During the bitter exchanges, it is revealed that Maric slept with a rival professor who was publicly critical of Einstein’s work.<\/p>\n

Eventually Einstein is granted his divorce only now he has his eye on his cousin Elsa. \u00a0Well, sort of. \u00a0A letter reveals that he was possibly playing along with Elsa but was actually interested in her daughter Margot (?!).<\/p>\n

Although not always a flattering look at the life of Albert Einstein,\u00a0Dear Albert<\/em> humanizes the great scientist in a way that will never let me look at him in the same way. \u00a0He was insatiable in his pursuit of women. \u00a0He was also\u00a0witty, charming and has a lot of the same hang ups in life as the rest of us. \u00a0Sometimes he’s working a dead end job he doesn’t like or is worried about money. \u00a0He has rivals at work that he has challenges with. \u00a0He has friends who he confides in and help him get through the troubled times. \u00a0Many of his challenges don’t seem all that different from the ones people face today. \u00a0Except for having a relationship with your cousin and possibly her daughter. \u00a0That’s not really a thing any more.<\/p>\n

After the production, Alan Alda and Brian Greene held a sit down conversation about Einstein and space time in front of the audience. \u00a0I’ve been a long time admirer of Alda and love his most famous work as Hawkeye Pierce in\u00a0M*A*S*H<\/em> and as Senator Arnold Vinick in\u00a0The West Wing<\/em>. \u00a0At the age of eighty, Alda still had a captivating stage presence. \u00a0In his discussion with Greene he came across as passionate, funny and intelligent. \u00a0To this day he remains a prominent advocate of the arts and science. \u00a0It was a pleasure to spend the night watching his work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The life and loves of Albert Einstein as read through his letters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2264,410,2468,2469],"class_list":["post-19457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-alan-alda","tag-brisbane","tag-dear-albert","tag-world-science-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19457"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19466,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19457\/revisions\/19466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}