The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Klein Theatre, Washington, DC

 

Adeoye as Leonardo in The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. Photo Credit: Liz Larsen.

Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre Company presentation of the Goodman Theatre (of Chicago) production of The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, written and directed by Mary Zimmerman, is currently playing at the STC’s Klein (formerly Lansburgh) Theatre. Reflecting on this unique theatre experience, I realized this is not a “play.” It may be more accurately portrayed as a theatrical event, an artistic endeavor, or a piece of performance art. One of my reference points took me back to my college studies of oral interpretation. In those days, “oral interpretation” meant that the performers held manuscripts and engaged in limited movement while performing works of literature. Oral interpretation’s definition is no longer that limited, often incorporating movement and dispensing with the manuscripts. 

Zimmerman is an artistic associate at the Goodman where she has directed 17 productions in the past 25 years. She received a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and is a professor of performance studies. She has turned her attention to other classical works, though this is the first of her adaptations I have seen. Some of those classics (for example, Voltaire’s Candide) are more intrinsically dramatic than what she is working with here. Finding a way to put on the stage (I can’t say “dramatize”) excerpts from thousands of pages of philosophical thoughts, drawings, musings, observations, and reflections, she draws upon Leonardo’s own words (well, English translations of those words). Zimmerman presents a diverse company of eight performers, each listed in the cast list as playing “Leonardo.” There is nothing about them that indicates that they are portraying different aspects of Leonardo’s life, e.g., the architect, the painter, the scientist, the inventor, etc. I could not determine a through-line in sequencing the various “scenes” shifting from topic to topic. I found myself wondering how the cast could learn and remember the lines and movement in when the content seems so randomly assembled. (This “event” also presupposes that the audience has a certain familiarity with Leonardo, which may not be the case for everyone.)

In 1962, President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy hosted a dinner to honor 49 Nobel laureates from the Western Hemisphere. The President said, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.” No doubt Jefferson was a singular intellect, but Leonardo’s work in architecture, painting, science, anatomy, and invention, even anticipating human flight and the earth’s relationship to the sun, make Jefferson’s accomplishments seem pedestrian by comparison.

Zimmerman’s production accomplishes a certain appreciation for the scope of Leonardo’s work. However, the text seems less important than the series of amazing visualizations creatively brought into existence by insightful design and execution, created by gifted designers and performed by some of the most amazingly agile, acrobatic, and athletic performers I have ever witnessed. Scene designer Scott Bradley provides a flexible environment that appears to be made of huge file drawers on either side of the stage, with a few additional elements. These “drawers” hide props and other environmental items (even performers). Costumes by Mara Blumenfeld suggest period and help create ingenious stage pictures. For the most part they are simple and fairly realistic, with the striking exception of a stylized raven who appears at the beginning and end of the performance. There is an amazing sequence in which Leonardo explores “perspective” in art by using strings to demonstrate a person’s lines of sight, with intriguing lighting (designed by T. J. Gerckens).

The performers – Adeoye, Christopher Donahue, Kasey Foster, John Gregorio, Anthony Irons, Louise Lamson, Andrea San Miguel, and Wal Yim – are all equally physically amazing, vocally interesting, and totally committed. They certainly demonstrate stamina. If I had to choose a standout, it would be Andrea San Miguel, a performer of slight stature who manages to lift and maneuver others of much larger proportions, as well as render a number of lines in Italian.

All in all, this performance was satisfying in its theatricality, though it failed to sustain my interest as a “play.” If the point is to admire the breadth of Leonardo’s interests or the creativity of its adapter, director, designers, and cast, the point is made. One may admire or appreciate a piece such as this without necessarily liking it, which is where I find myself. However, for an audience expecting “drama” or a “play,” the performance fails to deliver.