Review: REQUIEM FOR TESLA at The Off Center

The Rudes. They're like the cast of Star Wars or Star Trek, iconic and revered in that way that Trekkers love Leonard Nimoy or George Takei. They're especially for Austin fans though... well, that, and their fans everywhere from Helsinki to Cedar Rapids. Their current production, REQUIEM FOR TESLA, is, in its third incarnation, is like a Star Trek reboot. While other theatres around town dust off the usual December holiday fare, The Rude Mechanicals, never to be usual, have resurrected REQUIEM FOR TESLA in celebration of their 20th anniversary season. It's obvious they've been around and drummed up an enthusiastic fan base. (Full disclosure: I'm one of them). On opening night for this particular production, one ebullient fan behind us waxed poetic to total strangers about each and every Rude production he'd seen (many of which I've seen myself) including the 2001 and 2003 iterations of REQUIEM FOR TESLA.

Once we'd cozied up to one another in the iconic and unheated (c'mon, how often do we really need heat in Austin?) Off Center space and settled in for the thrill of the evening we couldn't help notice the rumbling current underneath our seats and the literal and figurative electricity in the air. REQUIEM FOR TESLA, like any production The Rudes offer, is immersive theatre. And in the case of REQUIEM, it's almost like an exhibit at Disney World, complete with an animatronic Mark Twain.

There's a lot to know about Tesla, but you need not brush up too much on him before you see the show. It's interesting to note though, that the mad scientist you're imagining in your head right now, the one found in most of those mad scientist movies including Young Frankenstein? They're all based on an oversimplified caricature of Tesla. The program is packed with facts about both him and the evolution of electricity. The show begins as Tesla travels to America and we learn of his childhood as he makes his way to a transcendence of his human form. In between, we learn of how Edison electrocuted dogs and cats, and yes, even an elephant, to dissuade Americans from using Tesla's new invention. His backers George Westinghouse and JP Morgan do their best to support him but eventually, Tesla's generous, innocent heart leaves him penniless. His genius, the genius he constantly questions throughout the play, twists up on him and becomes an insanity that includes a relationship with pigeons, a fear of spherical objects, and having parents from outer space.

REQUIEM FOR TESLA is a brilliant cerebral journey into the mind of Nikola Tesla (played with fastidious precision and handsome flair by Matthew Frasier) done only in the way that Austin's Rude Mechanicals can. An extraordinary and fascinating figure on his own, Tesla's joined in this story by other larger than life characters Mark Twain and Thomas Edison (both played by Robert S. Fisher, donned in a black on one side and white on the other costume representing each character. You'll just have to guess which is which.) Fisher is simply impeccable as both. George Westinghouse and JP Morgan are played with perfect bluster and gusto by Lana Lesley and Hayley Armstrong, who also inhabit the female characters in the show, Johanna and Katherine. Finally, Michael Kranes plays an endearing, intense and devoted amalgamation of a myriad of Tesla's assistants in the character of his cousin Czito. The live music is a stellar touch pulled off by Blair Bovbjerg and Graham Reynolds. Blair even plays the theramin, that spooky and creepy instrument you'll recognize in scary sci-fi movies from the 60's. The whole thing is a crackling piece of entertainment expertly directed by Shawn Sides.

There is, however, one character I must mention. Electricity. It crackles overhead in the theatre even as our seats rumble from the current beneath us. It's in the walls and the ceiling, and there is even a Tesla coil on the set. It's a great effect, pulled off beautifully by Master Electrician David Higgins and Electrician Kat Rodgers with Pete Whitfill as the Coil Owner and Operator. A Tesla coil. That's not something you see every day. Unless you are a Rude Mechanical.

For what it's worth, Tesla is the scientist who quite possibly possessed the knowledge to harness the earth's energy to provide free electricity to the entire globe. It's not a far-fetched notion that his patent for this contraption is tucked somewhere in a safe at a JP Morgan Chase Bank, while the rest of us set up payment plans for our summer air conditioning bills. JP Morgan would have helped Tesla out with this idea, excepting he couldn't put a meter on it. And that's the biggest rub of all about Tesla and his contribution to science.

The Rudes are an iconic Austin Theatre Company, just as Tesla is an iconic figure. They're still housed in the iconic Off Center, but the theatre community is set to lose the space in 2017. REQUIEM FOR TESLA is yet another of their brilliant productions. Help them celebrate their 20th season and watch the sparks fly.

REQUIEM FOR TESLA

Directed by Shawn Sides

The Off Center

Through December 18th

Tickets $12-35 Sliding Scale

Tickets at https://rudemechs.com/shows/requiemfortesla.html/

The program states: "The show has no intermission and runs about 75 minutes. You should probably pee now."

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