Secret Life of Humans

B

As part of its Brits Off Broadway series, 59E59 Theaters has imported this ambitious production by the collaborative New Diorama Theatre, a prizewinner at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. “Devised by” the company and written by artistic director David Byrne, the play finds dual inspiration from the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Israeli historian Yuval Harari and the life and work of British mathematician and science historian Jacob Bronowski, best known for his 1973 BBC-TV series “The Ascent of Man.” While Bronowski saw human history as a straight line upward led by science, Harari posits a more twisted path that does not always lead upward. One of Harari’s points is that the move from hunter-gatherer to farmer made human life worse rather than better. The play combines real personages, Jacob Bronowski (Richard Delaney) and his wife Rita (Olivia Hirst), with invented ones — Ava (Stella Taylor), a university lecturer and Harari devotee; Jamie (Andrew Strafford-Baker), Bronowski’s nonexistent grandson; and George (Andy McLeod), a mild-mannered mathematician. The plot revolves around the secrets of a room in Bronowski’s house that he allowed no one to enter. This part of the story is true. In a clever framing device, the lecture by Ava that opens the play morphs into a humorous introduction of Jamie and on to an awkward Tinder date. When Ava finds out that Jamie is Bronowski’s grandson and is temporarily living in his house, she gladly goes home with him. Ava is eager to learn the room’s secrets and persuades Jamie to let her investigate. We also learn that Jacob’s widow regularly visited the forbidden room for her own reasons. What Jamie and Ava uncover is a dark period in Bronowski’s life during World War II. We discover what motivated him to do what he did and what effect this period had on his later life. Jamie wants to protect the reputation of his grandfather, but Ava wants to advance her career. The interplay between exposition of theory about the nature of humankind, biography and invented story is not always seamless. Ava is much more engaging when she is lecturing than when she is interacting with Jamie. Despite some qualms about the play’s unevenness, I admire its high ambition and the high level of the production. The actors are all excellent. The scenic design by Jen McGinley is a wonder of moving bookcases below a blank wall on which evocative projections by Zakk Hein are shown and on which people walk! It’s a complex work that requires close attention, which most people will find worth the effort. Byrne co-directed with Kate Stanley. Running time: one hour 25 minutes, no intermission.