All Eyes on "Isaac"

While he may be commemorated in our history books as the father of physics and calculus, Isaac Newton is remembered by some scholars as a rather heartless scientist. “Isaac’s Eye,” which opens tonight and runs through Saturday in the Adams Pool Theatre, explores the life of a young Isaac Newton and lends warmth to a traditionally cold character.

The plot of this historical fiction is simple—the play begins with Isaac Newton (Todd E. Jones Jr. ’16) in his humble beginnings as he meets the famous Robert Hooke (Deng-Tung Wang ’17). Through this friendship and his own unique experimentation Newton tries to gain admittance into the prestigious Royal Society of London. However, the personal struggles that face Newton are far from simple.

“Newton is caught between living his life for the present…and the personal relationships he has versus trying to create a legacy,” director Sekinat J. Yusuf ’16 says. Though her concentration in neurobiology and secondary field in dramatic arts were what initially attracted Yusuf to “Isaac’s Eye,” it was the relevance of Newton’s internal battles that made her passionate about the show, she says. In the play, Newton struggles with a choice between work and his love interest, Catherine (Lelaina E. Vogel ’15).

“He isolates himself…. He is an oblivious jerk,” Jones says about Newton. “[The play] is a wakeup call to the overly ambitious.

A unique character referred to only as Actor (Sean K. Hardy ’16) guides the plot through Newton, Hooke, and Catherine’s trials, adding colorful commentary throughout the otherwise conventional script.

“I create this world,” Hardy says. “So you can basically say I’m God.” In rehearsal, Yusuf worked to develop Hardy’s unusual character, as his narration is central to the play. Although the Actor may not be a traditional role to portray, Hardy says it is the Actor’s narration that sheds light on an underlying theme in “Isaac’s Eye”—the difference between truth and deception.