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I went to the stage reading of QED (written by Peter Parnell) last night at MIT. The room was packed (not a surprise, I would think: free theater and ice cream on the menu, and Feynman is an interesting topic).
The play was a lot of fun, watching Feynman juggle so many pieces of his life, his work on the bomb, his first wife, his fascination with puzzles, his love of drumming and theater, his boundless enthusiasm for all sorts of questions, and his joy in teaching. A spectrum of emotions and ance dotes.
The actor in the title role did a good job with it, too, managing to keep the fact that it was a staged reading rather than a full performance from becoming too intrusive.
After the performance, there was a brief interlude of drumming, by two guys who had drummed with Feynman. The drumming made me think of the African dance classes I took for a bit; perhaps I'll go back. Interestingly, the drum stand was designed to look like a Feynman diagram. One of the drummers was also Feynman's son-in-law, and he spoke briefly, about preserving Feynman's legacy. But the way he talked about it was a bit too cult-of-personality-ish for me.
There were three guys who spoke next. The first was a science historian, who mentioned Feynman's contributions to scienc e (including the diagrams) and his anecdotal style. The second was Marvin Minsky, who spoke about Feynman's psychological bent. He couldn't keep still, had to keep realigning the tables, repositioning the microphone, leaning back, moving forward. And somehow, when I looked at this mostly-bald, glasses-wearing, older guy, all I could think was "overfed more satisfied Gollum." Disturbing. The third guy was another scientist, who apparently has had a nontraditional path in academe, since most physicists don't pay attention to his theories. He obviously valued Feynman's frienship and help enormously, but didn't seem to focus well in what he chose to say.
People were leaving in between speakers; it had been a longish evening already, and it was warm in the ro om, too. We were heading out when the moderator decided to cancel the Q&A session. The timing was good: I was among the first to grab some of the Feynman Flavor ice cream (a flavor dreamed up by Tosci's based on an anecdote about Feynman): Earl Gray tea ice cream with lemon sorbet and cream. It tasted a lot like very lemony very dairy ice cream to me (the Earl Gray wasn't very loud), and quite yummy.
[1040 addendum: I'd forgotten: there was also a recording of Feynman played before the drumming. It was a bit odd to hear his real voice after listening to the actor who was him for the performance. They played a piece that was similar to part of the script, so we got to hear about how some people thought him a Sooooooper-Genius, even back in high school. It was interesting to hear how the anecdote was lightly changed to work into the play, but the cynical part of me saw it as a teaser to get people to buy the CDs of Feynmania available outside the lecture hall.]
The play was a lot of fun, watching Feynman juggle so many pieces of his life, his work on the bomb, his first wife, his fascination with puzzles, his love of drumming and theater, his boundless enthusiasm for all sorts of questions, and his joy in teaching. A spectrum of emotions and ance dotes.
The actor in the title role did a good job with it, too, managing to keep the fact that it was a staged reading rather than a full performance from becoming too intrusive.
After the performance, there was a brief interlude of drumming, by two guys who had drummed with Feynman. The drumming made me think of the African dance classes I took for a bit; perhaps I'll go back. Interestingly, the drum stand was designed to look like a Feynman diagram. One of the drummers was also Feynman's son-in-law, and he spoke briefly, about preserving Feynman's legacy. But the way he talked about it was a bit too cult-of-personality-ish for me.
There were three guys who spoke next. The first was a science historian, who mentioned Feynman's contributions to scienc e (including the diagrams) and his anecdotal style. The second was Marvin Minsky, who spoke about Feynman's psychological bent. He couldn't keep still, had to keep realigning the tables, repositioning the microphone, leaning back, moving forward. And somehow, when I looked at this mostly-bald, glasses-wearing, older guy, all I could think was "overfed more satisfied Gollum." Disturbing. The third guy was another scientist, who apparently has had a nontraditional path in academe, since most physicists don't pay attention to his theories. He obviously valued Feynman's frienship and help enormously, but didn't seem to focus well in what he chose to say.
People were leaving in between speakers; it had been a longish evening already, and it was warm in the ro om, too. We were heading out when the moderator decided to cancel the Q&A session. The timing was good: I was among the first to grab some of the Feynman Flavor ice cream (a flavor dreamed up by Tosci's based on an anecdote about Feynman): Earl Gray tea ice cream with lemon sorbet and cream. It tasted a lot like very lemony very dairy ice cream to me (the Earl Gray wasn't very loud), and quite yummy.
[1040 addendum: I'd forgotten: there was also a recording of Feynman played before the drumming. It was a bit odd to hear his real voice after listening to the actor who was him for the performance. They played a piece that was similar to part of the script, so we got to hear about how some people thought him a Sooooooper-Genius, even back in high school. It was interesting to hear how the anecdote was lightly changed to work into the play, but the cynical part of me saw it as a teaser to get people to buy the CDs of Feynmania available outside the lecture hall.]