Nick Le Mesurier and Charles Essex examine Flowers for Algernon, presented by This Seat Taken at North Hall, Spencer Yard, Leamin...
Nick Le Mesurier and Charles Essex examine Flowers for Algernon, presented by This Seat Taken at North Hall, Spencer Yard, Leamington on February 19
Nick Le Mesurier
What is sown collects. Flowers for Algernon began in 1959 as a short story by Daniel Keyes, which was later published on a large scale and served as the basis for works in many different forms. He warned of the consequences of misapplication of bad science. The attractiveness of such a science remains in the minds of some who are or are in power today.
Charlie Gordon (Ben Thorne) is a young man with a low IQ who wants to learn and be intelligent. His professor Miss Kinnian (Bethany Down) refers him to an experimental laboratory in which the surgeon Dr. Strauss (Alex Comer) and the psychologist Dr. Nemur (Andrew Tyrer) is working on a revolutionary new treatment that will hopefully increase the performance of the human brain. So far, they have only tried it with a mouse of the same name Algernon (played by themselves). But when Charlie shows up, a participant ready to play a dangerous game, the experience moves to another league. The possibilities are limitless now, the future of humanity may be changed by cutting the surgeon's knife.
It works up to a point. But the consequences are tragic in the truest sense of the word. Charlie becomes intelligent, smarter than any other person on the planet, but loses something along the way, his humanity that he had gifted before he was changed. Then the circle turns, the results are not retained, but it is not returned to the base.
There was hardly a dry eye in this production, which was toured by actors from Is This Seat Taken, a film adaptation of Leamington's Heartbreak productions. The centerpiece of the play is Ben Thorne's appearance as Charlie. It manages to change its external shape and maintain its essential character. The work is carefully integrated into a series of video journals that Charlie keeps up to date, as well as his relationships with his "colleagues" in the factory where he works and with his "creators", the two scientists. The great movement of the actors across the many scenes changes effortlessly.
Both work and history avoid direct references to science policy, but they are present in every line. Flowers for Algernon are a strict warning of the arrogance of mankind when they are associated with contempt for people who are considered inferior. It is a warning that we have not heard.
Charles Essex
Successful work on learning difficulties is rare. This piece about a man with an IQ of 68 who blooms and then falls into dementia was impressive. Ben Thorne was great and gradually developed from Charlie Gordon's stutter to genius and vice versa. I pushed a broom into the factory and didn't know it was the target of jokes. However, ignorance is sometimes happiness.
When choosing as the subject of an experiment to increase intelligence, ethical problems occurred that had not been openly investigated in the work. However, these problems were cleverly resolved when we examined the effects of transferring the experimental treatment of Algernon, a laboratory mouse, to Charlie by the scientist Dr. Strauss (Alex Corner) and Nemur (Andrew Tyrer) watched. For them, Charlie was the laboratory rat, alluding to Nazi eugenics.
The treatment tripled Charlie's IQ. But it woke Charlie with contempt and ridicule from those who hadn't known it before. He had been ignorant in his ignorance. But just as Algernon worsened and died, Charlie's star rose, shining briefly, withered and burned, an undesirable side effect of the treatment, like so many treatments that were advertised for, life-changing changes as soon as longer-term effects are recognized.
Perhaps the most painful part for Charlie, which was mentioned so well when he recorded his rise and fall on video, was the deterioration similar to that of Alzheimer's with the increase in amnesia, which was interspersed with clear periods when he had his cognitive loss Skills recognized. The round theater with a minimum of accessories brought a familiarity with the sales and thus the history, which worked very well. This work is recommended as an accurate representation of people with learning problems and dementia without being the least bit in the world.
