STAGE REVIEW : ‘The Tesla Project’ Needs to Generate More Electricity

Not very many people approaching Donald Krieger’s “The Tesla Project” at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions will have heard of its subject, Nikola Tesla (1856-1943.)

Without Tesla, the world might not have had radio, alternating current, microwave ovens or--as Krieger reminds us--the electric chair. But the credit and the royalties went to others, which may partly explain the man’s peculiarities.

He couldn’t eat a meal without estimating the volume of every bite that he took, as if he were being punished by the gods for presuming to quantify the powers of the universe. He suffered from phobias about “spherical objects” and women’s hair.

Electricity was his true mistress. He would hold a wire until his hair stood on end and a line of blue sparks came out of his fingers. He was, perhaps, the last of the mad scientists.

One can see the attraction for Krieger, who has treated the erotic possibilities of science in autobiographical pieces like “Boy’s Life” and “Rocket.” One can respect Krieger’s intention to produce a big piece that gets away from the mirror.

But as theater--or, for that matter, as performance art--”The Tesla Project” doesn’t work.

Take those blue sparks. In a piece about electricity, it wouldn’t have been vulgar to have thrown in some actual blue sparks, rather than to have left them to the imagination. For a multimedia piece, “The Tesla Project” doesn’t once galvanize the eye; doesn’t catch the allure of a mysterious invisible current that can kill or enlighten.

At its best, it suggests an earnest and mildly apt Living Newspaper, devoted to capitalism’s skill at ripping off people with original ideas--whether inventors or artists. As with the original Living Newspapers in the 1930s, the actors who have the most fun with their roles are the bad guys: Tom Fitzpatrick as George Westinghouse, for example. With this Westinghouse you can be sure that it’s stolen from somebody else.

At its worst, the show is a welter of notions and images that never coalesce into a clear “take” (as we say now) on Tesla. The confusion starts with the form of the show. Sometimes it’s all happening in the mind of a writer (Steve Alden), who despairs of being able to sound Tesla’s protean mind.

But “The Tesla Project” also seems to be an old-time radio show, with corny Walter Winchell-type news flashes. The microphones are, however, the kind that are used today at high-school assemblies. This can be read as a piquant use of anachronism, or as carelessness.

If it’s a radio show, however, why can’t the actors talk? The show was directed by Mark Bringelson, an actor with fine diction, as we remember from “Brain Hotel.” He hasn’t imparted any of that skill to this company. With the exception of Fitzpatrick, they turn their lines into lead.

Again, this can be looked as expressive form--doesn’t Krieger have a line about human slaves who haven’t yet found the mechanical perfection of robots? But there’s no excuse for everyone in the piece to speak dully. Again, we think of the high school play.

Except for Kristian Hoffman’s electronic music, there’s nothing in “The Tesla Project” that couldn’t have been imparted twice as effectively, in half the time, on paper. The piece does arouse one’s curiosity about this tortured and strangely fulfilled genius. A woman standing outside LACE passes out fliers advising us that a film called “The Secret of Nikola Tesla,” is available on video. That I’d like to see.

Plays at 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays. Closes July 2. Tickets $8- $10. 1804 Industrial St.; (213) 624-5650. ‘THE TESLA PROJECT’

Donald Krieger’s piece, at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. With Steve Alden, Mark Andresen, Tom Fitzpatrick, Michael Garrity, Nancy Rommelmann, Michelle Seip and, on film, Bruce Schwartz. Director Mark Bringelson. Original music Kristian Hoffman. Lyrics Krieger. Films Rocky Schenck, Krieger. Models and props Steve Doughton. Set Kevin Adams. Lighting Kathi O’Donohue. Costumes Lisa Cohlman and Erin Hurley. Color slide animation and optical printing effects Jim Comstock. Projections Krieger. Tree Brad Dunning. Tesla doll Dara Gorelik. Sound Yamaha International.

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