"...dynamic and moving"

May 31, 2003 performance reviewed by Frances Benn Hall

The Fly Bottle by David Eagan, a play in which for ninety minutes three eminent philosophers clash heatedly over the question how anyone can know anything for certain, could sound intimidating but is lively and accessible.

The play is enacted in seven short scenes, woven together without a break. Reminding one of the pattern of the movie Rashamon, the story comes to us from three points of view.

The play opens with the re-enacting of a brief encounter at the Moral Science Club at Cambridge University in 1946. Ludwig Wittgenstein (Michael Hammond) has invited Karl Popper (Dave Demke) to address the group. The meeting is a disaster, lasting only a few minutes, and a raised poker is involved in the bitter exchange of views before Wittgenstein storms out.

The conflict involves the radically different theories concerning what it is possible for a philosopher to know for certain. The fly bottle of the title refers to the habit of Viennese bartenders to put empty beer bottles behind the counter to trap flies who entered, could see the world outside, but were unable to return to it. As Wittgenstein says sadly, “We are sealed off from the rest of the world and cannot find our way out.”

The third philosopher, Bertrand Russell, played by Dennis Krausnick, witnesses the embarrassing encounter, and while trying to keep out of it, finds himself somewhat in the middle. He is Wittgenstein’s colleague at Cambridge, but has been sympathetic friend and advisor to Popper.

Wittgenstein is the most anguished and his character the best developed by both playwright and by actor Michael Hammond who gives us an agonized character, torn by doubt, frustration, and anger. He cares so deeply about what he believes and what he is unable to believe, that one anguishes with him.

In his scenes with Popper he is over the top raging at the pompous self-confidence of the younger Popper, who in a smaller role gives us a believable man, one undaunted by conflict and whose opinions will not change.

Bertrand Russell, the character probably best known to audience members as a Nobel laureate who wrote beautifully advocating peace and calmness and happiness, is the third philosopher through whose eyes we see the incident. He witnesses the embarrassing encounter, would like to stay out of it, but finds himself somewhat in the middle. He has known Wittgenstein for years, indeed has brought him to Cambridge, but he has also been a friend and advisor to Popper.

Dennis Krausnick is strong in this complex role. In an exchange with Popper, who is a bit one-note in his self assurance, Russell brings a welcome note of levity into the play with his assertions concerning the importance of sex in philosophy. He is also movingly understanding in two scenes with Wittgenstein.

The first, a flashback to 1919 concerns the recently completed war in Europe in which Wittgenstein has participated, and during which Russell was jailed for refusing to participate. Wittgenstein is anguished. Russell is sympathetic but honestly feels “the world would be better if people were not so bloody serious.” He also realizes that he is no longer first-rate and later muses as to where his gift has gone. “I lost my nerve, I lost my edge.”

Hammond as Wittgenstein is crazed with his philosophy; one sees it especially in his eyes. His acting of this daunting role is magnificent. The two scenes between him and Krausnick are the most moving, theatrical, and dynamic in the play.

Tina Packer's skillful hand is behind the direction. This is not an easy play for director, actor, or even audience, but it is a dynamic and moving one and may set you thinking as to how far beyond the glass that separates the fly in the beer bottle from the outside world have you been able to see.