Invisible Atom

Overview

A one man play is a hard thing to pull off but the Canadian theatre production of Invisible Atom does just that. Anthony Black, who plays Atom, delivers an engaging, humorous and poignant tale of an everyday sort of man at odds with the world we live in.

We meet Atom caught on the brink of oblivion. At one time, he explains, he had it all. He earned $400,000 a year as a stockbroker, owned a million dollar house, a $10,000 leather couch and a plasma TV but despite all this, he became increasingly disillusioned by the capitalist society which at once sustained and suffocated him.

To make matters worse, his wife doesn't see what all the fuss is about and cares much more about maintaining their luxurious lifestyle than having existential discussions about where it might all lead. As Atom observes: “Nothing can expand forever – not even the universe.” Atom’s feeling of alienation is compounded by the fact he's an “orphaned bastard”, who can trace his heritage back to a long line of bastards, including Isaac Newton and the father who abandoned him at birth.

By including such topics as quantum physics, the stock market, capitalism and debt, the play could easily have become dry and dull but fortunately, it never drags. The supporting characters, who Black introduces with razor sharp timing, are very funny and help move the story along. Some of my favourites include the jovial taxi driver from ‘Autocratistan' and Atom’s wise guy multimillionaire father and his bodyguard. Also impressive is the way the sound effects and minimal high-contrast use of lighting heighten the apocalyptic mood.

Despite being first performed in 2004, this piece is more relevant now than ever. There was a time when many New Zealanders were stoic believers that we were reasonably immune to such things as global recessions but this clearly isn’t  debatable anymore. Perhaps you’re thinking you get enough of the doom and gloom on the nightly news, but then you’d be missing out on a great piece of quirky and original theatre.