This fascinating play is set in a New York hotel room in 1953. A famous physicist is working on calculus, a Senator tries to persuade him to give public evidence, an actress escapes from a film set, a baseball player comes looking for his wife. Although not named they represent: Albert Einstein; Joe McCarthy, notorious for his persecution of communists in the US; Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio. The last two being icons of the period.
The Senator is a bully, he tries to’ persuade’ the professor to testify at the Committee for Un-American Activies. The actress is escaping a night time film shoot and is tired of being gawped at. She wants to show the professor that she understands his Theory of Relativity. The baseball player wants his wife back to save his marriage. The professor is trying to complete his final work and cope with the knowledge that he helped develop the atom bomb.
