Intelligence Slave

Last night Doreen and I went to see Intelligence Slave, a world premier play that is currently being performed at the Alley Theatre.

It was performed in the small theater, sort of a "Theater in the Round" (though it is square. There is seating on four sides, about 16 seats across, about 6 rows of seats per side. So it is very intimate) and there was just one set.

The play is about a Jew in a work camp, being forced by the Nazis to make a hand held, four function calculator (mechanical. This thing really existed. While they didn't really say why the Nazis would be willing to keep a Jew alive for this purpose, it is because it would be extremely useful for artillery - they would use it to calculate what elevation to set the barrels, and how much powder to put behind the charge). There were only five characters - three Nazis and two Jews - and as you can imagine, the play was very intense.

The Jew who was making the calculator had the hardest part already figured out (subtraction, oddly enough) but was purposefully misleading the Nazis so that they would keep him alive. And because this devise would give the Nazis an advantage in the war effort, and he did not want to do that. But he did want to survive.

The Nazis make a 14 year old math prodigy, recently removed from the Russian Front, work on the project. As you can imagine, the play explores this interaction, and the relationship that develops.

I would guess that this play will start touring, so I won't say anything more about the plot. But it was well worth seeing.