{"id":16615,"date":"2015-03-09T12:20:05","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T19:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=16615"},"modified":"2015-03-09T12:22:17","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T19:22:17","slug":"art-imitates-life-in-play-about-gay-lover-of-logic-and-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/art-imitates-life-in-play-about-gay-lover-of-logic-and-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Art imitates life in play about gay lover of logic and men"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 3.5]<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

John Fisher (kneeling) directs himself (as gay scientist Alan Turing) and Heren Patel (as his young Greek lover, Nikos) in \u201cBreaking the Code.\u201d Photo by David Wilson.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
The real Alan Turing.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

One plus one can add up to more than one might expect.<\/p>\n

\n

Having seen the film \u201cThe Imitation Game,\u201d I suspected I\u2019d find \u201cBreaking the Code,\u201d a parallel play about math and men, merely a re-run since it leaned on the same biographical source \u2014 the real life of Alan Turing.<\/p>\n

My computations were wrong.<\/p>\n

“Code\u201d adds considerable depth by emphasizing Turing\u2019s homosexuality and humanness (as opposed to the hit movie\u2019s slicker, dramatic focus on the gay scientist\u2019s breaking a Nazi code).<\/p>\n

Indeed, John Fisher doesn\u2019t portray<\/em> Turing. He instead inhabits the character\u2019s body and makes him astoundingly authentic.<\/p>\n

A mental giant and \u201can old poof\u201d to whom \u201cpossessions per se mean very little.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powerful yet pathetic.<\/p>\n

Fisher adroitly incorporates the atheist mathematician\u2019s quirkiness without turning him into a caricature \u2014 his OCD-like insistence on lining up chairs and tables with exactitude (on an almost bare, pliable set); his fussy straightening of clothing; his recurrent fingernail-biting; and his childlike climbing into a fetal position in chairs.<\/p>\n

The director also slyly prods the plot through a recording of \u201cSomeday My Prince Will Come\u201d from the Disney cartoon classic, \u201cSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both play, which is surprisingly not devoid of humor, and film are well worth seeing.<\/p>\n

And, happily, still catchable.<\/p>\n

The former, presented by Theatre Rhinoceros, runs through March 21 at the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco; the latter can yet be found in various Bay Area movie houses.<\/p>\n

I, for one, was glad I saw the movie first \u2014 it made the jerky backward-and-forward time shifts of the play simpler to discern.<\/p>\n

Turing was an unlikeable, often neurotic, sometimes dysfunctional gay scientist who \u2014 despite odds of \u201c50,000 to 1 against\u201d \u2014broke the Enigma code.<\/p>\n

His work, which resulted in his pioneering the computer and artificial intelligence, helped win World War II because it enabled the Allied forces to pinpoint Nazi U-boat movements.<\/p>\n

Turing, ironically a devotee of logic, nevertheless was convicted of being a homosexual.<\/p>\n

He was sentenced to undergo hormone treatments that left him so physically and mentally bereft he, after two years of persecution, committed suicide at age 41.<\/p>\n

That tragedy, apparently a historic inevitability, might well slice through a theatergoer\u2019s emotional armor.<\/p>\n

\u201cBreaking the Code,\u201d by Emmy award-winning playwright Hugh Whitemore, was based on Andrew Hodges\u2019 book. It was originally produced in London and on Broadway in the late \u201880s.<\/p>\n

But the playwright apparently took some liberties with the truth.<\/p>\n

For instance, Turning, who was protected by Winston Churchill (and posthumously pardoned by Queen Elizabeth in December 2013), had been thoroughly investigated by police.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t accidentally blurt out his sexual preferences to a cop.<\/p>\n

Accurately depicted, however, was the scientist\u2019s fascination-flirtation with a schoolmate, Christopher Morcom, whose premature death haunted him all his life \u2014 and an awkward, non-sexual, short-lived entanglement with a female co-worker who worshipped him.<\/p>\n

Not only is Fisher, the Rhino\u2019s executive artistic director since 2002, brilliant in his acting, his direction is equally luminous.<\/p>\n

He makes the play\u2019s two hours race by, he ensures everyone\u2019s British accent is consistent and easy to penetrate, and he draws the best possible performances from Celia Maurice as Turing\u2019s doting but unenlightened mother, Sarah; Val Hendrickson as Dillwyn Knox, his supportive boss who personally doesn\u2019t care if Turing goes \u201cto bed with choir boys or cocker spaniels\u201d but frets about what the authorities will think; Kirsten Peacock as his infatuated coworker friend Pat Green; and Justin Lucas as Ron Miller, Turning\u2019s lover-user-betrayer.<\/p>\n

Like most, I knew zilch about Turing before the publicity bandwagon gassed up for \u201cImitation Game\u201d and Benedict Cumberbatch\u2019s starring role.<\/p>\n

I feel richer for having been informed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBreaking the Code\u201d will play at the Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson St. (at Front and Battery streets), San Francisco, through March 21. <\/em>Evening performances, Sundays, 7 p.m.; Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m. Matinees, Saturdays, 3 p.m. Tickets: $10 to $30 (subject to change). Information: 1-800-838-3006 or www.TheRhino.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or check out his blog at www.vitalitypress.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 3.5] One plus one can add up to more than one might expect. Having seen the film \u201cThe Imitation Game,\u201d I suspected I\u2019d find \u201cBreaking the Code,\u201d a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"