If you’ve seen the promos for the play currently being staged at the Cambria Center for the Arts Theatre, then you’re familiar with the question they pose: What would you ask the man who claims to have been alive for 14,000 years?
You might conclude that The Man from Earth, then, must be a slice of fantasy / science fiction / fairytale / fable / allegory (take your pick). But after seeing the production, I’m more inclined to deem it an example of Socratic dialogue—you know, a discussion of philosophical ideas between individuals using questions to determine consistency and coherence in order to bring everyone closer to the truth.
Approximate—not exact—truth, I would argue, is the whole point of The Man from Earth, a conundrum of a film written by Jerome Bixby (a science fiction author known for his short stories and several episodes of Star Trek) and released in 2007. In 2012 it was adapted into this play by Richard Schenkman.
Essentially it’s a one-set, one-act dialogue between highly educated individuals who aren’t sure whether to believe the tale that their colleague, named John Oldman (get it?) spins. Played steadily and stoically by Landen Scott, Oldman tells stories implying that he’s old enough to have hunted wooly mammoths, become a follower of the Buddha, and amassed a slew of advanced degrees (since he has lots of time on his hands).
At one point, when we have become intrigued with the premise, he makes a comment about what it’s like to watch everyone you know die. His friend Sandy (played with empathy and intelligence by Jianna Frantz), shares a sentiment that resonates even after the play ends: no one knows how much or how little time they have.
Director Bryce Prunty wisely decided to guide his actors into an intellectual rather than emotional exchange, with one major exception (having to do with religion, naturally, as belief is charged with a fervency easily expressed but seldom closely examined).
One of Oldman’s colleagues (a focused Kate Kravets) is a devout Christian who becomes upset at one of his claims, while the others (played by Topher Lyons, Beth Boylard, Colin Toohey, and Moorea Prunty) all seem willing to go along for the ride, at least as an intellectual exercise.
Russ Snow, giving a heartfelt performance, plays a key role as a psychiatrist who feels it necessary at one point to question Oldman’s sanity, but later provides a clue that could, maybe, answer a lot of our questions.
If you expect the conclusion of this 75-minute show to give you a neat answer all tied up in a bow, however . . . well, maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t. It’s as simple, and as complicated, as that.
When rehearsals began for this production, I sat down with Prunty, who also serves as Cambria Center for the Arts Theatre artistic director, to talk about why he decided to direct The Man from Earth.
“It makes you question what it is to be human,” Prunty said, citing its simple premise, then likening it to Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. “It makes you appreciate life.”
There’s no better reason to go to the theatre than that.