There is initial suspicion between the men, and no matter the actual truth of the time, Gunderson explores the notion that Ada loves Babbage and Lovelace both, in different and strangely non-competitive ways. Evans plays Lovelace, Ada’s future husband, with such skill - he could so easily be an off-putting rival to the charismatic Babbage, but he is changed and supportive and the audience is grateful for his part in Ada’s story. It’s easy to see why Ada loves him so dearly. Paulson’s interpretation of Babbage is imbued with humble attraction and quiet tragedy. Charles Babbage is the overly intelligent, dashing older professor William Lovelace, the necessary adherence to society’s requirements enveloped in love and loyalty. Tad Paulson and Mic Evans play the other two triangle points in Ada’s story. William Lovelace (Mic Evans) and Charles Babbage (Tad Paulson) in ‘Ada and the Memory Engine’ at Theatre Cedar Rapids. Palmersheim stayed onstage for the entirety of the production, not “taking up space” necessarily - but I did have passing moments where I wished they were somehow incorporated more into the story performed. The electric ukulele evoked a marriage of “then” and “now,” and the moods Palmersheim composed fit the action and underlying tensions beautifully. The original, live music by Emmy Palmersheim was a lovely addition. The elaborate and changeable costumes created a wonderful visual among the math and blue they lived within. Every performer was dressed in accurate spectacle befitting the time the story is set in. Jenny Nutting Kelchen’s costumes were a beautiful and full embrace. It can hint at the time or an aspect of it, deny it completely or embrace it fully. In a contemporary period piece such as this one, individual pieces of a technical vision can go quite a few ways. Transitions often occur while the characters read letters written between them - a smart location for a physical shift, and the performers slink in-between boxes with purpose and project vocally so that little is lost from page and action, and these physical transitions are smooth enough to maintain the momentum essential to any play. The malleability of the boxes help to create an ever changing world - however, at times, moving the boxes could be a bit cumbersome in the small and intimate space. Handwritten equations cover the walls (a bold color of blue - a mixture of teal and microsoft), and the dots of the original programming punch cards blanket the floor, keeping the brilliance and connection of Ada and Babbage always present. It’s equally complex and simple, with acting cubes moved and arranged to become chairs, tables or podiums in different times and locations. The juxtaposition of our current technological world and a past existing with an extraordinary comparative lack of technology is made apparent at the outset in the runway-configured minimal set design by Kristen Geisler. Ada (Link) watches a lecture by Charles Babbage (Tad Paulson). Their relationship sparks a decade’s long connection that helps to define and expand Babbage’s plans for an “engine” (Alan Turing’s invention of the modern computer wouldn’t occur until a century later), first a “difference engine,” later evolving into the “analytical engine” - the “memory engine” of the play’s title - which could “think.” Babbage is credited with dreaming it into existence, and (though she never tangibly realized them) Ada’s extensive notes for the device, showing her ability to imagine what it was capable of, that solidify her status as the very first computer programmer.Īda and the Memory Engine begins shortly before that party. But Ada’s spirit, a combination of her parents, persisted.Īt 17, Ada meets Sir Charles Babbage at a society party. Ada grew up under the care of her very strict mother - Annabella worked to combat the lascivious reputation Lord Byron left in legacy to Ada and to keep her away from the lures he succumbed to by grooming her for a legitimate place in society and tutoring her in poetry’s apparent opposite - numbers. Lauren Gunderson’s play centers around Ada Lovelace, daughter of the (in)famous Lord Byron and the Lady Annabella Byron - two people, near opposites, whose daughter was gifted with her father’s command of language and her mother’s command of numbers. It’s about a woman pushing through it and working within it to accomplish remarkable things. But Ada and the Memory Engine, running now at Theatre Cedar Rapids ( tickets $15-25), isn’t about the patriarchy. And sometimes, things happen to come into being because of a brilliant young woman who’s work languishes behind the scenes of a world maintaining the order of men. An incredible potential for reality in the conjured.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |