“Heisenberg” presented by Brave Space Productions

It’s a truism that, as one gets older, time seems to move more quickly. One is more aware of the sound of the ticking clock of mortality, and the myriad of possible futures one idly contemplated in youth gradually begin to narrow. One starts to wonder, are certain options gone? Did I wait too long to take up windsurfing? Regrets can feature in this analysis as well, with a corresponding thought – is there anything I can do to fix this? Simon Stephens’ smart and charming play, Heisenberg, examines this attempt to improve one’s life while one still can via a quirky but affecting love story. The new production at the Skylight Theatre is lovely, beautifully acted by Juls Hoover and Paul Eiding and sensitively directed by Cameron Watson, and it’s one of the best shows I’ve seen this year.

Septuagenarian Alex (Paul Eiding) is sitting on a bench in a train station, minding his own business, when he is approached by Georgie (Juls Hoover), a woman more than thirty years younger, and suddenly engaged in conversation. She’s garrulous and offbeat, and this throws him a bit. He’s more alarmed when she shows up at his butcher shop a few days later and admits that almost everything she told him before was fabrications. She also asks him out on a date, which he eventually agrees to. Gradually Alex warms to Georgie and opens up to her, and romance begins to suddenly be a possibility for him, something he never thought could happen again.

Hoover is terrific as Georgie, a manic pixie dream girl in early middle age that has lived long enough to see some of her hopes fail. She brings a poignance to the character’s nervous stream of consciousness chatter that recognizes a genuine curiosity in even simple questions such as, “Do you like food?” Georgie’s chronic lies and manipulations are a frantic cover for her own insecurities, and Hoover’s brilliant portrayal makes this clear and even sympathetic. Eiding is immensely likeable as Alex, a character whose life has not gone the way he might have wished. He conveys much in Alex’s early reserve of things too painful to discuss, and then expertly delineates the character’s slow willingness to come back to life and feel joy again. One scene, in which Alex discusses his dislike of the fact that he cries easily, seemed to me initially a clear plot point, but when that moment actually happened, I was surprised and moved regardless. It’s a great performance.

Watson has a well-deserved reputation as being uncommonly skilled with getting amazing work from his actors, and he demonstrates that talent again here. His focus on the performances is so detailed that it seems to create an almost liminal space in which nothing matters except for the relationship between these two people, neither space nor time. Tesshi Nakagawa’s spare set works perfectly to create the various locations that Georgie and Alex inhabit, as does Jeff Gardner’s evocative sound design. Ken Booth’s lighting design creates a circular effect during scene transitions that boosts the slight feeling of the real world existing distantly, focusing the attention on the characters.

Stephens wrote Heisenberg based on the suggestion of a foundation that encourages playwrights to explore scientific themes, in this case the “Uncertainty Principle.” What’s funny about that is the resulting play is so human and never mentions science at all. Instead, it demonstrates it. One never truly knows what other people are feeling or thinking, and they can surprise you. This production is a very nice surprise, an early holiday present that can send you home smiling.

Heisenberg is presented by Brave Space Productions at the Skylight Theatre and plays through December 22. Tickets are available here.