Forget splitting infinity. Let’s start with splitting plays.
The better part of Jamie Pachino’s artful “Splitting Infinity” is a thoughtful, accessible little gem about using science to prove – or disprove – God’s existence. Then we’re hit with a soapy climax that flames out like a melodramatic supernova. Granted, “The History Boys” does, too – and it won the Tony Award.
Add “Splitting Infinity,” enjoying a capable regional premiere by Fort Collins’ OpenStage, into the growing catalog of science plays along with “Copenhagen,” “Proof,” “Arcadia” and “Galileo.” Its questions aren’t new, but it feels far more approachable and less intimidating than anything Tom Stoppard or Michael Frayn ever wrote.
The central conceit here is that you can take any given distance, from an inch to infinity, and no matter how many times you split it, a gap will remain – one neither scientists nor clerics can close. Perhaps it is in this mysterious unknown space where God lives.
But like “Proof,” it’s not the science that makes this play. Sure, there’s enough requisite jargon to give it some weight, but it’s not about connecting with God or fractals so much as it is about connecting with other human beings. At its core, “Splitting Infinity” is about the random collisions and tantalizing near-misses between two friends over 40 years.
The play revolves around astrophysicist (and fallen Jew) Leigh Sangold (played at 22 by Brooke J. McQueen and at 49 by the luminous Judith Allen), and Rabbi Saul Lieberman (Dan Tschirhart and Charlie Ferrie). It’s an obvious and contrived pairing of opposites – her science and his faith make for four decades of ongoing debate – but sometimes life can be as hit-and- miss as atoms.
Saul finally admits his love for Leigh, but too late: She’s already happily collided with post-doctoral student Robbie (Jeremy Make). Together, this unlikely pair dare to go after God with physics. He’s fueled by the hubris of youth, she by menopause and fear of mortality.
Their quest, if successful, will of course change the world. But it’s also an affront to any person of faith who already knows God exists. How? “Faith.” It’s a familiar intellectual battle between those who believe God gave us brains to seek answers, and those who simply … believe.
Unfortunately, our rebel couple’s intellectual journey gets snuffed out quicker than you can say “Terms of Endearment,” and from then on, the story founders in soap.
But a heartfelt undercurrent keeps things engaging. In the opening scene, for example, young Leigh informs Saul that when we look up into the sky, everything we see already has happened. Like this moment itself, which we learn by zipping ahead 27 years to see a smitten student sweetly fawning over a now much older Leigh – and not only for her considerable intellect.
Leigh is now likably flawed – a Nobel-winning drunk. Allen’s portrayal of her is funny and tender, natural and cathartic. And by evening’s end, even heroic. It’s easy to see why Make’s Robbie is crazy for her.
Director Deborah Marie Hlinka’s staging, punctuated with a melancholy soundtrack that includes Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bookends,” isn’t ultimately about God. It’s about being unafraid to take chances, to succeed, to ask unanswerable questions … to collide with another human being.
A lasting memory will be Saul professing an old Jewish belief that an angel visits every child in the womb and imparts it with all the knowledge it will ever know. Then just before the moment of birth, he takes it back, so the baby comes out crying.
But earlier on the day of this performance, at the funeral of slain football player Darrent Williams, it was suggested we cry at birth because we are born into a world filled with tribulations – and that we should rejoice at death because we are going to a better place.
Where is God in all of this? Is he in the vast expanses of our brain that we never use? Does he lurk in a fraction? Is he that moment between life and death? Or is it just possible that God is the opposite – not the missing space at all, but rather the missing space filled.
Maybe God is that place where two people move closer and closer, halving infinity with each step, until they find a way to close the gap entirely and become one.
Splitting Infinity | *** RATING
DRAMA|OpenStage & Co.|Written by Jamie Pachino|Directed by Deborah Marie Hlinka |Starring Judith Allen, Charlie Ferrie and Jeremy Make|At 417 W. Magnolia St., Fort Collins|THROUGH FEB. 3|8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, plus 7:30 p.m. Feb. 1 |2 hours, 30 minutes|$13-$20| 970-221-6730 or lctix.com
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“APHRODISIAC” Curious Theatre’s regional premiere of Rob Handel’s dark comedy looks at Beltway scandals. Opens Saturday, then 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 24 at the Acoma Center, 1080 Acoma St. ($24-$28; 2-for-1 Thursdays; 303-623-0524 or curioustheatre.org).
“OUR TOWN” PHAMALy, Denver’s esteemed handicapped company, presents its first nonmusical: Thornton Wilder’s classic tale of life and death in Grover’s Corner, N.H. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays (and Jan. 22), 2 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 4 at the Aurora Fox, 9900 E. Colfax Ave. $20-$22 (303-739-1970 or phamaly.org).
“I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE” Relationship foibles set to sketch comedy and song. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays (and Jan. 31), 2 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 11 at 2450 W. Main St., Littleton. $16-$33 (303-794-2787 or townhallartscenter.com).
“TWELFTH NIGHT” Shakespeare’s gender-bender is set in the swinging ’60s. 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays (and Feb. 14), 2 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 17 at the Victorian Playhouse, 4201 Hooker St. $16-$20 (303-433-4343).
–John Moore
