“Such an accomplished woman hardly needs defending, but defining a life is another matter.”
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Gunderson uses two actors to play Emilie and writer Voltaire who was her mentor, companion and lover, and then three actors to play everyone else, from Emilie’s mother, husband and daughter, to servants and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton and poet Jean-Francois de Saint-Lambert. As they do not change their costumes, we are never entirely certain who they are when they reappear. Throughout the play Emilie is working on the physics formula F=mv2 (known as force vive) which she attributes to German mathematician and thinker Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Unfortunately, this math will be foreign to most theatergoers who have not studied physics.
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“The talent in the show is top tier, every single one of the five players. The set is very elegant and multi-functional at the same time...Make no mistake, it’s heady stuff. I highly recommend it.”
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“Under the direction of Kathy Gail MacGowan, the fully committed cast does what they can to enliven a script that often falls flat--making naughty faces and pulling silly hijinks behind the scenes...Though the costumes are dazzling, the set lovely, and the actors sincerely trying, the production falls flat.”
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This long-lasting union of hearts and minds and the marquise’s achievements could make a gripping and emotional story on stage. But the production, while decked out in period frippery, fails to excite.
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