“So here I am, ‘Relativity himself.’ … I wonder if they called Sir Isaac Newton ‘Gravity himself’ or Louis Pasteur ‘Rabies himself.”’ Albert Einstein mutters this aloud one evening to a houseful of guests he’s invited over so he can counter false stories about himself in the press and set the record straight. That’s the premise of Willard Simms’s 1984 Einstein: A Stage Portrait, a one-man show that actor Tom Schuch has been performing for four years. Not surprisingly, in 2005, the World Year of Physics, Schuch has been in heavy demand across North America in schools, physics departments, and professional society gatherings.
A chalkboard is covered with calculations on unified field theory. A violin lies on a table. A few family photos sit on shabby furniture. Letters are piled everywhere. A 67-year-old Einstein wears a suit but no socks. He finds an apple in his jacket...
