Theater Review: The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

              Cast and set of "The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci"
 

Audience members at author/director Mary Zimmerman’s “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci” are warned of this at the beginning: “This is to be a collection without order.”

Da Vinci, the 15th-16th century polymath perhaps best known as a painter, was also a draftsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor and architect. His mind seemed to work in all those areas, sometimes sequentially and sometimes seemingly all at once. 

Zimmerman’s show reflects all that, in a piece with eight characters (five men and three women) – all named “Leonardo” – and a script that includes dance, acrobatics, hide-and-seek, and props that become swings, or a self-sustaining bridge that can be (and is) climbed on. There are drawers everywhere that become ladders and seats, and rocks tossed around. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen onstage.

“Leonardo” is, therefore, not a play at all, but the unveiling of a singular mind consumed by curiosity about – well, almost everything. 

The various Leonardos (Adeoye, Christopher Donahue, Kasey Foster, John Gregorio, Anthony Irons, Louise Lamson, Andrea San Miguel and Wai Yim) push, pull, work together, work solo, climb, and create artistic chaos in this one-act piece.

There is talk of perspective, and questions to consider, like why can’t man fly and what is the relationship of the artist to his subject? And comments like “Lightness is born of weight.” And “The eye is the window of the soul.”

Scott Bradley’s set design has everything, but not all at once, just at the right time. Bird cages, staircases, swings, hanging bars appear at just the right moments to serve their purposes. T.J. Gerckens’ lighting designs help to draw the eye to actions at the proper times. And Mara Blumenfeld’s costumes add to the visual experience as well.

Leonardo counsels: “Look at walls or clouds,” and reports that he saw a cloud in Milan that gathered other clouds around it, then became “a storm of wings.” Now that’s imagination.

And finally, “Everything comes from everything and everything can be turned into something else.”

This show is exhausting (though fascinating) to watch, and even more exhausting to consider afterward. But here’s your chance to find out what it must have been like to have a brain like that.

The details

“The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci” plays through Feb. 26 on The Old Globe’s Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage.

Performances Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. 

Exceptions: No performance on Tuesday, Feb. 21 and a 2 p.m. matinee added on Wednesday, Feb. 22.

Tickets: www.TheOldGlobe.org or (619) 234-5623