Local playwright David Whiteman gives a secular nod to life-in-review classics like A Christmas Carol, by way of A Brief History of Time. Meet Fred, a boyhood stargazer turned astrophysicist with an almost religious faith in science. Journeying through space and time with his long-dead father, Fred confronts crises from the deeply intimate to the cosmic; from a hospital bedside to the heat death of the universe. As his mother declines, so might the whole planet.
From the closeness of nuclear family to the awe-inspiring vastness of the cosmos, he connects the dots to draw a constellation of our greatest fears. But through the darkness, Proxima Centauri shines a ray of hope. We’re reminded as we face down death—whether of a parent, or a planet—that life not only has meaning, it is the source of meaning. We are not living in the universe—the universe is living in us.
“We are the almighty universe itself, expanding, developing to the point of being able to look through the glass of a telescope, and recognize that it’s here.”
Advisory: Momentary sound and lighting effects which some viewers may find intense, strong scenes touching on elder abuse
