The Man From Earth at Stages Theatre in Fullerton. Jerome Bixby has a solid reputation in science fiction circles: He wrote the short story “It’s a Good Life” that the classic Twilight Zone episode was based on; he wrote the story “Fantastic Voyage” that the movie was based on; he wrote a number of Star Trek episodes; he wrote the classic sci-fi horror movie “It! The Terror from Beyond Outer Space.” So when he had a brainstorm of an idea for a story about the oldest man on earth, a man who has not aged in 14,000 years and has witnessed the entire history of modern man, it probably sounded like a great idea. And it is a fascinating concept. How would history have changed this man? How much of history might he have participated in? How is it possible that he stayed alive? Most importantly, what kind of man would he become? The answer to that in the stage play adaptation of the 2007 movie (by the film’s director, Richard Schenkman) that was based on Bixbys story, “The Man From Earth”, is that he becomes a mild-mannered college professor with ten PhD’s. That, and a few other assorted surprises, are revealed in the production currently running at Stages Theatre. The problem is, as a play it doesn’t turn out to be as interesting as it might sound. John Oldman (yes, it is that obvious) is the professor in question, who, upon his retirement from an unnamed university, invites some of his closest colleagues to his house, ostensibly to say good-bye. Instead, he impulsively decides to reveal to them that he was born in the cro-magnon era and, due to a quirk in his DNA, has not grown beyond the age of thirty-five in 140 centuries. He survives all disease and illness and doesn’t scar. His body is more sound than Wolverine’s, minus the adamantium. He has lived all across the globe, knew Buddha personally, owns a painting gifted to him by van Gogh, and has pretty much mastered all the knowledge of mankind. But to him, it was simply a way of avoiding boredom. He really doesn’t think it’s anything special. His colleagues set out to question him in depth, hoping to trip him up in what they naturally believe is a game he’s playing, but the more he answers, the more they begin to wonder. And here’s why this play is completely untheatrical. There is no conflict to be seen, no dramatic tension, no real character arcs, it’s just people talking. Dan finds it intriguing, Harry is amused, Edith is offended, Art is enraged and Dr. Will is dumbfounded and frightened. It’s possible a more engrossing version of this play could be produced, but in the hands of director Calvin Ballard, it remains a static display of talking heads. John (a likable and solid Frank Tryon) remains calm and cooperative throughout the interrogation and most everyone else just yells at him from across the stage. The only action is John pacing back and forth downstage. The only real mystery here is whether or not John is telling the truth, and will anyone believe him. And, in fact, John doesn’t really care. So, aside from the theoretical implications of the idea, there really isn’t any story here. It’s possible that a little more emotion, some dramatic lighting or some music underscoring might have perked things up a bit, but nothing much really changes from curtain to close. We are clearly meant to believe John’s story, so it really doesn’t seem to matter whether or not his friends do. Halfway through, the play takes an unforeseen left turn when John reveals he is, in fact, a very important and renowned historical person and for a few minutes this provokes some hostile reactions, but even those shortly subside beneath all the talking. More intriguing ideas, but again, nothing really changes. Eventually everyone leaves, convinced it was all a hoax, and John moves on. There is one more surprising reveal before we are done, which was along the lines of something I was asking myself the whole time, but which, surprisingly, no one on stage thinks to ask. But even this seems right out of left field and really doesn’t affect anything. Tom Royer, Todd Rew and Steven Sullivan are effective as John’s colleagues, in roles that are more mouthpieces than actual characters. If you’re a fan of science fiction, or speculative fiction as we used to call it, there are ideas here to chew on, it’s just too bad the story itself doesn’t offer enough to actually digest. “The Man From Earth” runs at Stages through November 2, Saturdays and Sundays at 5:00. stagesoc.org/Shows/2014Season/TheManFromEarth.aspx
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 02:59:39 +0000
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