THE LOVE SONG OF J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER
Synopsis
"Do I dare disturb the universe?" J. Robert Oppenheimer's rise and fall erupt in this kaleidoscopic play exploring questions of faith, conscience, and the consequences of the never-ending pursuit of knowledge. The fevered wartime drive to build the first nuclear weapon, by a collection of previously academic theoretical physicists, many of them Jews fleeing Hitler's Germany. Success turns to horror when "the Gadget" is dropped, first on Hiroshima, then Nagasaki.
In a flash that is the end of his life, J. Robert Oppenheimer paces the desert of the Trinity Test Site, wrestling with his memories and one scary, sexy, unpredictable demon: Lilith, Hebrew mythology's first woman, cast out of Eden for refusing to behave. Hissing in his ear, she goads him to admit what he refuses to acknowledge: an anger that mirrors her own.
Select Production History
Frank Theatre at The Playwrights Center
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park
Purchase
The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Dramatic Publishing
The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer - Available in SELF DEFENSE and other plays, NoPassport Press
Reviews
"So much brilliance, ambivalence, ego, history, myth, science, moral argument, emotional heat, poetry and sheer dazzling theatricality are compressed into the mere two hours it takes for Carson Kreitzer's The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer to detonate on the stage…that by the time it is all over, you might easily feel you’ve been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation." - Chicago Sun-Time