Pip Utton has been writing and performing one-man shows for over quarter of a century. And to the best of my knowledge, all of them have been well-crafted and well-received. Including last year’s And Before I Forget I Love You, I Love You, about the devastating effects of dementia on both the individual and their loved ones which he reprises at The Stand’s New Town Theatre until 25 August.

This year’s offering Einstein, a cross between An Audience With… and a Royal Institution Christmas Lecture, is equally accomplished if vastly different in style and substance. A sure sign of his mastery of the oldest art form: storytelling.

Employing a deliberate non-linear structure to mirror the time and space-bending possibilities of his greatest discovery, Utton flits back and forth between his “elegant” death and regrettable marriage to his first wife Mileva upon whom he placed a number of restrictive conditions; to his dismissal of religion and support of “militant pacifism” which was tainted by a front page splash in Time magazine describing him as “father of the atomic bomb”.

But the recurring theme is not one of impenetrable conundrums or head-scratching theories, but a joy for life rooted in curiosity and optimism. Qualities, he argues, which should be embraced by individuals and governments for the betterment of mankind (Boris, take note).

It is heady stuff; but as in Adolf and Playing Maggie of previous years, there is plenty of heart and humor too. As in his bursting of a dramatic bubble with the comedic: Thinking is difficult, that’s why so few do it. And his Idiot’s Guide to The Theory of Relativity which he cloaks in a joke and a twinkle of the eye.

Peter Callaghan
Latest posts by Peter Callaghan (see all)