Emilie – A Docudrama Where Profundity and Humor Mix, with Intoxicating Charm, as Well as a Perfect Martini

 

Adam Merulli as Voltaire and Katie Kerr as Emilie  Credit: South Park Theatre

          You can’t help but admire and extol the craft with which playwright Lauren Gunderson interweaves the wit of the likes of Oscar Wilde and Dorothy Parker with intellectual musings and clever narrative in her docudrama Emilie Le Marquise de Chatalet Defends Her Life Tonight.

          In fact, without disparaging the craft of the actors, director and tech crew, I consider Gunderson’s writing the star of the production, now getting a staging at South Park Theatre.

          Living in the alt-patriarchal society of 18^th century France, where women were considered decorations and/or property, Emilie, a wealthy and celebrated intellectual, was well educated, chiefly through the auspices of her open-minded father.

As the play opens, we find Emilie, or perhaps it’s better to say her consciousness, musing on her life years after her demise. What matters most she asks, love or knowledge. To help her decide she rather unscientifically keeps score of each recollection with checkmarks on a chalk board under the heading Love and Philosophy. For one so scientifically focused, I was surprised to see the way Gunderson had her keep tally so loosely and cavalierly.

For the love part of the equation, Emilie (Katie Kerr), although in a tacitly open relationship with her husband, the Marquis du Châtelet (Sam Lander, who also plays additional roles), a military officer, frequently away from home, finds the passionate, intellectual and carnal relationship with French Enlightenment exponent, Voltaire, much more fulfilling.

The way Gunderson infuses witty dialogue and satirical repartee into their conversations is part of the play’s appeal. Her success in recreating realistic and interesting dialogue between these two wits and intelligent lovers is highly commendable.

Even after their relationship turns platonic and Emilie finds a new and younger lover (Lander again), their deep emotional history and cerebral interests keep them strongly bonded.

As to the philosophy heading on the chalk board, the playbill helpfully includes an insert that explains in simple terms the physics with which Emilie devoted her life work and study. Basically, it puts the title character on the Liebniz side of the mathematical equation that sees force as ongoing, “live” and never needing replenishment as opposed to the Newtonian concept that Voltaire favors, where force eventually stops and becomes zero and “dead.”

“Today, due in part to Du Chatelet’s work,” the insert reads, “we understand that the two equations describe two different things” – Newton’s describes the Conservation of Momentum while Liebniz’s became what is understood as kinetic energy.

Not only is Emilie known for her espousal of Liebniz’s equation and translation of Newton’s Principia into French, her insights regarding energy eventually traces ahead  to Einstein’s development of the formula E= mc^2.

As Emilie, Kerr is assured, steadfast in her beliefs, and nicely balances her gift of superior intelligence with her sensuous and amorous side. Her personality is large enough to harbor and nurture both.

Conversely, she neglects her daughter (performed by Rebecca Radeshak, who also acts as the younger Emilie in flashback scenes) for her work and has come to have misgivings about their ragged  relationship

          Another off-kilter relationship, one that pits Emilie against her decorous-minded mother (commendably played by Jen Fitzgerald) who wants Emilie to learn the nuances of how 18th century French society expects its women to behave. Emilie is not interested in such trappings and rigorous manners but, due to her wealth, is able to escape the eye of her social set by sheltering quite comfortably with Voltaire in an outlying estate.

          Adam Merrill is a dandified Voltaire, dressed in elegant clothing, and confident in his knowledge, intellectual reputation and nationwide esteem, elements that buffers him from duress, even from the disfavor of the all-powerful king.

Merulli’s Voltaire is always alert with every nerve seeming ready to fire as he looks for an excuse to volley off a witty, insightful remark. As his paramour, Kerr is equal to the challenge of intellectual gamesmanship and often comes out on top of the sardonic interchanges.

Lander shows his depth in a number of roles starting with a hilarious impersonation of Newton and ending as the youthful gallant who successfully woos Emilie and replaces Voltaire as her lover.

Director Olivia Hartle keeps the play moving at a comfortable clip and works with sound designer, Joe Eberle, and lighting designer, Eve Bandi, to delineate the real time and flash back scenes with visual and auditory clues. Costumes by Lilly Brown and an adequately regal set by Sabrina Hykes-David round out this praiseworthy production of a large and thought-provoking play successfully unfolding in an intimate space.

Thanks to the writing of Lauren Gunderson, you can put on your thinking cap and tickle your funny bone all at the same time.

Emilie, La Marquise du Chatalet is at South Park Theatre through August 1. For tickets, phone 412-831-8552 or www.SouthParkTheatre.com.