Resolved: Humankind Is on an Unimpeded Upward Trajectory. Debate the resolution.
That could be a come-on—perhaps too dry a come-on—for Secret Life of Humans, the brilliant David Byrne play devised with The New Diorama Theatre company and co-directed by Byrne and Kate Stanley, now at 59E59 Theatres.
Yes, to some extent the 80-minute play that seems to go by in no time flat is a debate. It’s presented, however, with abundant dramatic wit that not only disguises the conflicting argument at its center but enhances it with additional human concerns—large ones such as why are we here, where is civilization headed and how much do we actually know about each other as we’re heading there. (Hence the title.)
Ava (Stella Taylor), a university lecturer on anthropology, introduces the taut proceedings. She notes that she’s just been told her department is being disbanded and also confides that she’s about to go on a first date with Jamie (Andrew Strafford Baker), in whom she may have more interest than at first is evident. Jamie’s surname is Bronowski, a fact about the man that it’s unclear Ava knows but eventually definitely appreciates.
As the encounter appears to be progressing nicely, Jamie mentions that his grandfather—a grandfather whom he never knew—was Jacob Bronowski. Does the name ring a bell? It may with older ticket buyers. Jacob Bronowski is a Polish-born, British mathematician who, through a string of serendipitous events, became in his sixties an international culture hero.
Jacob Bronowski hosted The Ascent of Man, a 13-part 1973 series presented by the BBC and shown in the states on PBS. His intent was to wander through the millions of millennia to discourse on the evolution of humankind. His thesis was that that human journey has been nothing but constant progress. (FYI: The series is now available on YouTube.)
So here’s where Ava’s interest in the Bronowski’s kicks in. She’s conversant with his beliefs, as evidenced in her opening remarks, but she takes issue with them. She’s not convinced that Bronowski’s onward-and-ever-upward tenet is correct, and, now that she’s met Jamie, she looks to be in a position to find out much more about granddad.
This comes to pass when, the date going well, Jamie invites Ava to the house where he lives and, more pertinently, in which Jacob Bronowski lived. Before and after they romp around in a bed (not his, which is a single bed), they tour the house, with Ava getting a rewarding gander at much memorabilia.
Then the big Secret Life of Humans reveal occurs. Jamie says his grandfather had a room in the house always locked in those days. Now, he says, it’s been opened, the cue for Ava to ask to see it. She does, and when there, opens a sealed box to discover information about Jacob Bronowski’s involvement with—maybe this is as much as needed to be disclosed on that subject. Additional info would cut into the nice streak of suspense Byrne and group insert in their nifty piece.
More important to note is that while Ava and Jamie are circulating among the several moving bookcases that designer Jen McGinley has placed on a book-covered set, so are the elder Bronowski himself (Richard Delaney), his loving wife Rita (Olivia Hirst) and George (Andy McLoed), a government minion involved with Bronowski’s locked-room work. (Some of these actors also appear walking, as if viewed from above, along Zakk Hein’s profuse projections.)
Now’s the time to report that Secret Life of Humans is based on actual events. Frequently, both Jacob Bronowski and Ava read from his books—one of them the BBC series companion volume, The Ascent of Man. At one point, this Bronowski talks about a trip made to post-atomic-bomb Japan. His words are Bronowski’s recorded words, and are, in part:
“On a fine November day in 1945, late in the afternoon, I was landed on an airstrip in Southern Japan. From there a jeep was to take me over the mountains to join a ship which lay in Nagasaki Harbor….Suddenly, I was aware that we were already at the center of damage in Nagasaki. The shadows behind me were the skeletons of the Mitsubishi factory buildings, pushed backwards and sideways as if by a giant hand…I had blundered into this desolate landscape as instantly as one might wake among the craters of the moon.”
Fascinating, no? Also fascinating is the way the New Diorama Theatre ensemble has framed Secret Life of Humans on an ever-rising angle, even if humanity may not be. Chief among the drama’s sly aspects is the Ava-Jamie relationship. It’s clear he’s interested in her, but, as tidily devised and aided by Yaiza Varona’s music and sound design—it also becomes clear that, no matter the disenchantment Jamie experiences about his grandfather’s past, Ava is actually out for material on which she can base a book she has in mind to take the weight off her firing.
Before Secret Life of Humans ends, Bronowski quotes from Friedrich Engel, insisting, “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” Maybe on the evidence of the play—which is expertly acted and directed by all—is that both Engel and Bronowski are wrong. This work has plenty to impart about the mysterious allure of history and what we can take from it.
Secret Life of Humans opened June 7, 2018, at 59E59 Theatres and runs through July 1. Tickets and information: 59e59.org
