Surreal 'Dreams' brings science to the stage

You don't need to be a physicist to appreciate Jobsite Theater's production of "Einstein's Dreams." Directed by Kari Goetz, this ensemble piece was thought provoking and visually surreal without being too weird or esoteric.

Here's some background information for the scientifically challenged, like myself:

In 1905, Albert Einstein wrote a paper titled "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," which documented the first part of his theory of relativity. The German scientist focused on special relativity, or the structure of spacetime. Think of any cliché about time's elasticity, and you'll likely begin to fathom this heady stuff: time flies when you're having fun, time stands still, there's no time like the present and so on.

Fast-forward to 1992, when Alan Lightman wrote the novel "Einstein's Dreams," a fictionalized account of Einstein's nocturnal stewing over his new ideas. Four years later, David Gardiner and Ralf Remshardt adapted Lightman's book for the stage and premiered their play at the University of Florida.

It begins with Einstein falling asleep at his desk. A series of dreams unfold, and the cast, dressed all in white, articulates the nuances of the resting man's mind at work.

Imagine a double world where half the people act now and the other half respond later. Consider what would happen if time moved backward, slowed down the faster you moved, ran in a circle until every moment repeated itself or repelled death in its infinite construct.

Each dream represents a different conception of time and humans' perception of motion and life as a result of these definitions.

Goetz, along with Katrina Stevenson's flowing choreography and costume design, presented these Dalí-esque metaphors to great effect. The finely tuned cast included Stevenson, Patrick Ryan Bolger, Katie Castonguay, Slake Counts, Tia Q. Jemison, Greg Milton, Nic Carter, Nicole Jeannine Smith and Jessy Quiñones.

There surely are other messages here, but that's the beauty of the play. It's deep, like the kind of sleep that results in a drool pool on your pillow and makes you want to stay asleep to keep dreaming.

Einstein may have come to a satisfying conclusion about time, but that hasn't stopped mere mortals from living and dying by the clock and calendar. So if this fascinating play proves anything, it's that man's 24/7 notion of time is relative.