|  | By Alison Ireland. The Playhouse has hosted some fantastic sets recently, and last night's was no exception. The stage was transformed into a high-class, high-storey Manhattan hotel room, with stars above and all the night lights and noises of the big city below. An old man with a strong German accent potters about in bare feet
we then discover (if we have not already read the programme notes) that this appears to be Albert Einstein. During a bizarre, yet somehow not surreal, night, he is at intervals joined by Joseph McArthy (of McArthy trials fame), Marilyn Monroe and her then-husband Joe DiMaggio. This fictional meeting of the four celebrities is a fascinating premise for a play which toys with scientific theories, philosophical ideas and the purpose of existence. In a famously funny scene, Monroe explains the Specific Theory of Relativity to Einstein using toy trains and balloons; in another McCarthy indulges in a heavy-handed spot of solipsism. This is a play which does demand some knowledge of the characters (despite the fact that they are never named at all, but merely described as The Actress, The Professor etc.) otherwise I feel that its emotional significance would be lost. Moreover, it explores the nature of fame and celebrity as much as anything else, and specifically in relation to these historical characters. The acting was excellent (though I did initially have my doubts about McCarthy's southern American accent), with particularly strong performances from Nicholas Le Prevost as Einstein and Patrick O'Kane as DiMaggio - the latter really raised the tension of the action, adding both passion and poignancy. However, while 'Insignificance' is interesting and worth seeing, I left the theatre with a sense of having witnessed the author playing with his intellectual toys rather than with his audience's heartstrings. Discuss.
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