By Diane Peters
The much-hyped Tesla Electric burns only half as bright as promised. Tesla wows you subtly with its light, sound and visuals, but beneath the splendour sits a long, witty-to-a-fault script.
The production team for Tesla transform the stage at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre into a small technical universe that is strangely simple and beautiful. Elaborate props, humorous slides and stunning light and sound blend well into the script. The lights especially create and maintain the mood. The stage is dramatically lit, yet sometimes completely dark. Edison’s “lightbubbles” sometimes act as props and lighting devices at the same time. All this visual appeal does its best to mask imperfections in the play itself, but doesn’t succeed.
The main flaw of the script is the characters. Most are poorly developed and often stereotypical, but the actors do their best to ham their way through it.
Susan Potvin is especially entertaining. She plays a number of characters, most of whom are fun but highly stylized. Earl Pastko plays Nikola Tesla with a shade more depth than the other characters. But his long monologues (often involving some technical concept) slow the play down. With such a clever set, it’s too easy to watch and not listen.
The characters seem thinner than they are, probably because of their witty lines—cute, funny comments that sacrifice originality for chuckles. But all is not funny as the play draws past the two and a half hour mark, towards an ending that approaches for a good part of the second act.
To playwright David Fraser’s credit, he attempts a lot with the script. He not only meshes historical characters, but adds a play within a play—the clever inclusion of Mark Twain and the integration of numerous thematic ideas. But it’s all too much and only some of the attempts are successful.
Tesla Electric needs to be taken back to the laboratory. There is a lot of potential in the play, which could come through in a tighter, shorter script. With a restaging, and the same high calibre of production, the play has the potential to be bright, inventive theatre.
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