The Inventor

Brief synopsis: A famous scientist and immigrant on the cusp of completing an invention to benefit mankind is plagued by post-war PTSD and medical negligence, accelerated by the loss of Khadija, his talented prodigy. As he walks the line between genius and madness, his life-defining work, a new fantastical invention thought impossible by science, is threatened to derail. This full-length experimental play is concerned about medical trauma, the imprint of the Holocaust, and the struggle to move forward from the past.

Format: Full Length, Drama, Experimental

Cast Size:2M, 2W

Character breakdown:

MAURICE LANDAU: (M, 40’s-50’s) A self-defined creative scientist. Self-doubting, brilliant, kind. Fully endearing. A disheveled genius type, made rugged by time. Jewish.

GEOFFREY DRDEK: (M, 50’s-60’s) His psychiatrist. A colleague. Landau is quick to see him as a friend. Geoffrey is disarming, authoritarian, possibly even relatable at times. He is also myopic, observes the world in absolutes and functions accordingly.

KHADIJA MADI: (W, 30’s-40’s) Landau’s prodigy. As a woman and immigrant she has a shared sense of outside perspective and bonding. The two also share a commitment to their work which transcends these bounds. She is grounded and dignified. She is Middle-Eastern, a refugee schooled or raised in the UK. Possibly Palestinian.

JORDANA LANDAU: (W, 50’s-60’s) Landau’s wife. She lacks discretion, is volatile, difficult, almost admirable in her intensity. Though older than Landau, she is childlike; also delicate-featured and fair. Their love is total but devastating. She is Jewish, a child survivor of the war.

Notes:

*A note on accents: Subtle, soft, pleasant; the lightest tinge of British like an immigrant who has studied the British way of speaking and who came to love the English language through the British voice. The accent should never distract.

**Note that in some productions, additional casting for YOUNG LANDAU and YOUNG JORDANA might be employed. A choreographer familiar with Jewish weddings is necessary for this section.

Original or Prominent Production:
The Drake Theatre, Workshop. Drake University

Nationality of Author: Canadian | U.S. | Israeli

Original Language: English

Production Rights Holder:

Daniella Vinitski Mooney

Experience(s) Chronicled: Allegoric or Metaphoric Representations | Survivors and Subsequent Generations | Women and the Holocaust