1=0

Reviewed by Stephen Fife
Theatre of NOTE 
Through March 30

Theatre of NOTE begins its new season with the play 1=0 by Joshua Fardon, directed by James R. Carey. It is a perplexing play to lead with and, frankly, a perplexing choice by a perplexing theatre company.

Theatre of NOTE has done some decent plays in recent years — witness their production of For the Love Of (or The Roller Derby Play) by Gina Femia, which is being revived at the Kirk Douglas Theater from March 7 to 17 as part of Center Theatre Group’s Block Party (best recent productions from 99-seat theaters). It’s worth catching for director Rhonda Kohl’s muscular choreography and Tania Verafield’s sexy tough-girl performance.

But more often than not, Theatre of NOTE’s search for adventurous selections leads them to mount cerebral but dramatically nebulous work. Two recent examples are The White Room and D Deb Debbie Deborah, both of which had intriguing premises and highly theatrical moments but ended up not amounting to much. Those plays seem like masterworks, however, compared to 1=0, which also plays around with some trippy contemporary ideas about the nature of reality, but never gives the audience anything solid to grasp onto in terms of what’s really at stake, much less why we should care.

I think this predilection is reflected in the company’s own description of Fardon’s play: “An unemployed, divorced theoretical physicist has an online relationship with a man claiming to be a Syrian refugee. When the relationship goes offline, it paradoxically becomes less real.” Really? Wow, be still my heart, I gotta run out and catch that one, ’cause paradox is my thing.

In point of fact, that is not what the story is about. Instead, it’s a love triangle between a physically-handicapped theoretical physicist (Michelle Hilyard), the university professor who loves her and has been supporting her for the last six months (Andrea Ruth), and the self-referenced Syrian refugee whom she has fallen in love with online (Will McFadden).

The play begins with a lengthy equation written on a chalkboard, in which Celeste (the unemployed physicist) is trying to prove how 1 can equal 0 (a proof would affirm the illusory nature of reality). The equation is unfinished, as Celeste hasn’t quite gotten the numbers to equate. This is highly disturbing to Molly (the physics professor), who doesn’t understand the equation (join the club) and who keeps stressing that they have less than 24 hours before submitting it for a prestigious grant, which in turn is the only way that Celeste will be able to make any money. Since her health is highly unstable, owing to Celeste having had steel rods recently implanted in her spine, it is imperative that she solve the equation and restore her reputation as a genius physicist. But instead, Celeste’s mind is on the Syrian refugee she met on OkCupid, whom she is about to go on her first date with.

Molly does everything possible to discourage Celeste from going on this date, but Celeste needs love, needs to be loved and to feel desired, and evidently Molly’s obsessive (and possessive) affections do not fit the bill. When Molly is unable to dissuade her with the grant deadline, she questions whether Celeste’s steel rods would be able to withstand the physical pressure that a sexual encounter would entail. Celeste shrugs at this too and goes off to meet with Russell (the “refugee”), but Molly’s warning will prove oracular.

The best scene is when Celeste returns to Molly’s office with Russell in tow. Russell describes himself as “the whitest Syrian refugee ever,” and McFadden has fun with that concept and with the role itself, as he baits Molly, arbitrarily moving around items in her office. Molly, a control freak, is driven crazy by Russell’s machinations and by the fact that Celeste can’t seem to see through his ruse. She is beside herself when Russell tells a story about the death of his wife and child in a Syrian bomb explosion, which Celeste finds deeply moving but which Molly sees as patently false (I’m with Molly on this one). On top of everything else, the deadline for the grant is only a few hours away! But Celeste chooses to leave Molly once again to go with Russell to an Ingmar Bergman double feature.

Yes, there’s a lot of talk about multiple realities, and how two very different set of facts can both be true, but where does that leave us? There are several instances of unlikely coincidences or seemingly arbitrary events which prove convenient for the playwright but are hardly convincing. Ruth and Hilyard both do the best they can with their roles, but they can’t save this play. There is one horrifying moment of incontrovertible fact which is highly disturbing and will stay with me for a while. The rest will fade quickly into Theatre of NOTE’s familiar ether.

Theatre of NOTE, 1517 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; through Mar. 30. (323) 856-8611 or www.theatreofnote.com. Running time: 100 minutes with no intermission.