Physics Gets Physical: 'Legacy of Light'

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TO THOSE FOR whom a play involving physics and calculus provokes glazed eyes and memories of high school trauma, fear not.

"There are no long, dusty speeches," says playwright Karen Zacarias of her new comedy "Legacy of Light," currently housed at Arena Stage in Crystal City.

Indeed, the play begins with a make-out session, then a sword fight. The duelists in question: philosopher Voltaire (Stephen Schnetzer) and St. Lambert (David Covington), lovers of Emilie du Chatelet (Lise Bruneau), a brilliant mathematician and physicist.

Zacarias came across Emilie while researching another play about Einstein. "I was interested in her scientifically … historically … emotionally," she said.

The play includes both and 18th- and 21st-century plots. In the former, Emilie discovers at age 42 that she is pregnant with the youthful St. Lambert's child. Fearing she will die in childbirth, she crams as much scientific discovery as she can in the months she thinks she has left.

In the second plot, Olivia (Carla Harting), an astrophysicist, discovers a possible planet in formation and then decides she wants to form a life of her own.

The struggles hit close to home to the D.C.-based Zacarias, who wrote the play while pregnant with her third child. "We're still dealing with how parents balance their personal aspirations with being a good parent," she said. "There's still that same tension."

The convergence of the two plots late may require some suspension of disbelief in a play that is largely historically accurate, but the cast of immensely likeable characters oozes with charm.

» Arena Stage, 1800 S. Bell St., Arlington; through June 14, $25-$66; 202-488-3300. (Crystal City)

Written by Express contributor Erin Trompeter
Photo courtesy Scott Suchman