Last night I had the opportunity to attend a dramatic reading of the play \u201cMr. g,\u201d by Wesley Savick, adapted from a novel by Alan Lightman. The performance was part of ArtsFest, and sponsored by the Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts program. Two of the performers were Butler students, and two were from the Indiana Repertory Theater.<\/p>\n
The story is about Mr. g, a teenage boy. He contemplates how to tell his story, and whether it should start with \u201cin the beginning,\u201d \u201ca long time ago in\u2026\u201d or something else. He had just woken up from a nap, and decided to create the universe. He reflects on how infinite possibilities result in infinite indecision, and the decision to replace nothingness with something. His aunt Penelope brings him his lunch (a sandwich, plate of cookies, and glass of milk), as he tells of creating time. She tells him off for bringing before and after, past and future, into existence \u2013 indeed, she complains about the tenses that she now has to use to complain about this new state of affairs. He then turned to space, including the creation of ambiguity by bringing quantum physics into existence \u2013 or did quantum physics create itself?<\/p>\n
His neighbor stops by and asks him whether he thinks that a thing and its opposite can both be true. Mr. g says no. She points out that the universe he made will end in tragedy, thanks to free creatures that he is bringing into existence. But his uncle and aunt insist that if he wants to make animate beings, he will do so and make them just as he pleases. They encourage him to take his time and focus on one universe; they also talk about naming the universe, and instilling it with spirit, harmony, feeling, and beauty. He decides to call his universe Aalam 104729. Mr. g\u2019s first law ends up being that the past is sharper than the future. His second is that there are no absolutes. The third is that every event must have a cause. He likes its spirituality and rationality. He notes that a very intelligent creature \u2013 should he ever make one \u2013 would be able to ponder it, but not penetrate beyond the first event. He decides those three laws are sufficient.<\/p>\n
Uncle Deva suggests making everything connected to everything else, and to Mr. g, giving the universe a soul. But Deva reacts with disgust at how boring it would be if the universe contained nothing animate. Mr. g insists that he will not make anything immortal in his universe, because it would be against his law.<\/p>\n
The neighbor girl comes over and questions the idea that physical laws will determine every thought of animate beings. She asks if he is afraid they will embarrass him. He says he just wants consistency and elegance.<\/p>\n
Deva and Penelope \u201cooh\u201d at stars coming into existence. They refer to him as an artist, a physicist, and a genius. He shows off the way the rotation of planets changes the light on the mountains. He continues to comment on how \u201cit was good.\u201d<\/p>\n
But eventually he contemplates creating another universe with more organizing principles. Penelope suggests that he should finish the universe that he has already made, and accuses him of being greedy. At first, he is indignant, but eventually he recognizes how much pleasure he takes from creation, and how it could lead him to get carried away. And so he focuses on this universe and makes water. He is impressed by how some molecules have started replicating themselves, simply following the laws he made. He says he hadn\u2019t fully taken into account the possibility of accidents. The neighbor girl asks whether life merely seems out of control, or in fact is<\/i>\u00a0out of his control. She is excited by the prospect of the highly complex brains of organisms producing effects that cannot be foreseen. She encourages him to let the living things unfold as they may. They pick up two petrie dishes and clink them, saying, \u201cTo Life!\u201d<\/p>\n
In the second act, uncle Deva asks about intelligent life as though he were asking about grandchildren. Deva suggests that the beauty of his glorious universe would make it even better, since more minds would appreciate that beauty. Mr. g asks what will happen if something goes wrong and animate life suffers. Deva tells him to have faith, since his goodness will ensure that suffering doesn\u2019t happen. Mr. g wears a lab coat and goggles in these scenes. He is excited as a group of 200 million cells generate electrical activity unnecessary to their survival. He pokes the blob of cells with a stick, and expresses excitement at the blob\u2019s awareness of being a \u201cme\u201d touched by something else. He feels sympathy towards it. Then he considers the possibility that thinking things could perform their own experience and discover the laws that he made. They will feel imagination and mystery. The neighbor girl imagines them crying out to God for rain, longing for immortality \u2013 the greater the mind, the worse the suffering. She notes that they enjoy harming each other, and must like it some how. Mr. g says he cannot accept that, and she remarks that perhaps all things cannot be contained. He asks why they fear death, and she suggests that perhaps they abhor the void and non-existence as much as he did. The scene concludes with Mr. g and the neighbor girl speaking as though they are two orphan sisters in a war.<\/p>\n
At the start of the next scene, Mr. g asks Penelope whether she was happier back before he made time and suffering. She cries. Deva emphasizes that they have other things besides suffering \u2013 emphasizing music. Penelope says that creation has changed them, and asks why they should be immortal while those suffering creatures do not. She also asks whether the creatures know he is their creator, and he says they have ideas about him \u2013 \u201creligion.\u201d They discuss whether mystery inspires the creatures, and whether it would be better for him to reveal himself to them. Mr. g comments on their sense of the void even though they cannot grasp it. Deva suggests giving the creatures a tiny glimpse of the void at the moment of death, so that they sense they are part of something immortal.<\/p>\n
Mr. g takes delight in the observation of two complete strangers exchanging pleasantries, suggesting that the creatures finding meaning may be what matters, rather than their meaning to immortals. The neighbor girl observes that Mr. g is as susceptible to mystery as they are \u2013 and he remains a mystery to her. Mr. g revisits the sisters, and gives one of them a glimpse of the void before she dies. He comments on the way her molecules will become part of millions of other people as time passes. The neighbor girl takes Mr. g to see where she lives \u2013 a barren place as his laws lead to the heat death of the universe. She asks if he would do it again, knowing what he knows now. He says he regrets that there was suffering. But she asks the question again. Penelope asks her nephew what he will do next. Mr. g says he misses it, but his aunt and uncle say there will be another, and another, and another after that. The play ends with Mr. g saying, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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