The Invention of Love is playwright Tom Stoppard’s contextually complex love letter to classical scholar and poet A.E. Housman. The play opens with Housman (David Greenspan) dead and waiting for the ferryman Chabon (Annabel Capper) to take him across the River Styx. On the trip across, Housman encounters his life, particularly his school life and deep love for Moses Jackson (José Espinosa). Young Housman (Yaron Lotan) and Jackson are schoolmates and good friends. Housman would like more. Housman is deeply in love. Love that is never touched, that is left without any rhetoric, is a grief that never ends. That person will always be with you. Dormant at times but always there.

Stoppard has written an intellectual, spiritually classical play as dense in language as a black hole is in everything. Textual discussions and criticisms on the classics are part of the dialogue. At times I thought it would be nice to know who they are discussing, as I, and I assume most of the audience, are not classical scholars. (The 2001 New York Broadway production had a 30-page booklet for the audience to reference the scholars and politics discussed in the production.)

The Roman poet Catullus is one that I did know, as he was the poet said to have invented the love poem (romantic that I am). In The Invention of Love, Housman discusses him at length. You can read some of Catullus’ poems HERE.

The talks of the classics, criticism of the writings of scholars, the Greeks’ plays, Greek philosophers, poetry of Dante, are all picked up and examined in this piece, as well as talk of the athletics of men, Catullus love poems, and of course love. Love, deep unrequited love. Love that gets in the way of friendship, and in the end destroys the friendship.

The idea that, “…knowledge is good just by being knowledge. You can’t have too much of it,” is the catalyst for everything for Housman.

Scholars and thinkers in this world spend time and energy on the minutiae of language, finding precision that will give it permanence. For example, discussing at great length the placement of a comma. I have always found that intriguing. To devote your life, your very existence, to language and how we use it and how we abuse it is extraordinary. Laying down the science of literature, literature being the work of the human mind and all its frailty.

Housman knew Greek and Latin. He translated Horace’s poem, Ode 4.7, “Diffugere Nives.” There are five words in that poem that I believe are linked and form the construct that literature scholars believe, embrace, and fight against daily. They are, “We are dust and dreams.” We will be lost to life one day, and so words are one of the few things we have that are solid, lasting, and left behind.

The play concerns one man’s desire for love and also his and others’ need for creating story, for the poetry of life put down in words for all to explore and relish. David Greenspan is as always wonderful. He is himself a traveler of words, and Housman is a perfect fit for him.

Directed by Zachary Elkind, the play moves at a steady gallop. The actors are a fine-tuned ensemble. Flowing in and out of the beautiful white box that is The Theaterlab. Bridget Lindsay’s sparse scenic design allows the space to hold the words, thoughts, and ideas without clutter. Alyssa Korol’s costumes are flowing Late Victorian era. I am not sure who, director or costume designer, decided on all the characters in Houseman’s past to be sans shoes or any covering to the feet, but that simple choice made them otherworldly, playful, and light. The past coming back as best it can. It also made them silent as they moved about.

The Invention of Love is running through October 3rd. I recommend it for anyone who loves the work of words and seeing a show that holds the human being in high regard as an intellect and a creature who loves, and loves deeply.

The Invention of Love, written by Tom Stoppard and directed by Zachary Elkind
with: David Greenspan, Sam Bolen, Annabel Capper, José Espinosa, Leland Fowler, Abrar Haque, Daniel Liu, Yaron Lotan, and Spencer Lutvak

Creative Team: Bridget Lindsay – Scenic Design, Paige Seber – Lighting Design, Alyssa Korol – Costume Design, Julian Horn – Original Music, Rebecca Hanna Malamud – Production Stage Manager, Maya Shore – Line Producer, Laurie Bashford – Assistant Director

Theater Lab
357 West 36th Street, 3rd Floor,
New York, NY 10018

Tickets HERE

Running Time: 2 Hours and 40 minutes, including intermission

Photos by Paul Lutvak