EINSTEIN!: A Genius in Tumultuous Times – Playground Theatre

Written and performed by Jack Fry, this 85-minute solo show finds Einstein in Berlin in 1914, battling to prove general relativity while his world fractures around him. War, antisemitism, professional rivalry, ill health and a disintegrating marriage all compete for space within an already densely packed narrative.

Fry has clearly undertaken formidable research and brings enormous commitment to the stage. This is clearly his passion, and for that he should be commended. Unfortunately, the resulting production feels overwhelmed by its own material. Rather than constructing a satisfying dramatic arc, the piece fires information, characters and incidents at the audience with an exhausting frequency that drove some from their seats and back out into the street.

Everything about the show is frenetic. Fry ricochets between voices, physical characterisations, scientific explanation and heightened emotion, rarely allowing a moment to settle. What presumably intends to convey the turbulence of Einstein’s life instead creates theatrical clutter. The result: there is plenty happening, yet remarkably little that grips.

That exposes the production’s fundamental problem, that historical biography is not automatically theatrical drama. Einstein’s life provides fascinating subject matter on paper, but recounting extraordinary events is different from dramatising them, and the piece resembles an animated lecture or historical presentation rather than a fully realised play, and at 85 uninterrupted minutes, the lack of variation becomes particularly punishing. Despite Fry’s relentless energy, the evening feels curiously static and considerably longer than its running time.

There are glimpses of a more intimate play here, particularly when Einstein’s intellectual obsession collides with his failures as husband and father, but unfortunately, they are buried beneath an avalanche of historical facts. There is no questioning the extraordinary life of Albert Einstein, he revolutionised our understanding of time and space. Ironically, this production struggles with both.

The greater question raised by EINSTEIN! – A Genius in Tumultuous Times is whether this chapter makes compelling theatre. On this evidence, regrettably, it does not. The show runs at The Playground Theatre until 13^th September. Tickets are available at https://www.theplaygroundtheatre.org.uk/projects/einstein

Reviewer: Alan Stuart Malin

Reviewed: 8^th September 2026

North West End UK Rating: