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    The Portrait of a Genius: A Play in Three Acts
    The Portrait of a Genius: A Play in Three Acts
    The Portrait of a Genius: A Play in Three Acts
    Ebook82 pages1 hour

    The Portrait of a Genius: A Play in Three Acts

    By Laszlo Solymar

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    About this ebook

    Geniuses are few and far between. Most of them will have honors and prizes showered upon them. But there will be exceptions, numerous exceptions: We dont know how many because they never make it; they fall by the wayside. They believe themselves to be alone in a hostile world, unable to adapt, unable to bring their ideas to fruition. They detest their inferiors and detest even more their superiors. One such genius, a historian with acute observations about the past and the future, was immortalized by Ibsen in his play Hedda Gabler. The Portrait of a Genius tells a similar story.

    Dramatis personae are the following: Helen Gascoigne, young, beautiful, uncompromising; Leslie Brock, the dean of the faculty who wants to bed her; George Turner, Helens devoted husband, a scientist not burdened with great leaps of imagination; Esmund, the reckless genius who invents an entirely new kind of computer; and finally, Rosalind, girlfriend and admirer of Esmund.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse UK
    Release dateFeb 15, 2013
    ISBN9781481783606
    The Portrait of a Genius: A Play in Three Acts
    Author

    Laszlo Solymar

    Laszlo Solymar was born and educated in Hungary. In the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution he escaped to England. He joined the University of Oxford in 1966 where he is now an Emeritus Professor. During his career he had Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Paris, Copenhagen, Osnabruck, Berlin, Madrid, Budapest and London.

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      Book preview

      The Portrait of a Genius - Laszlo Solymar

      © 2013 by Laszlo Solymar. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse 02/11/2013

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-8361-3 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-8360-6 (e)

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

      and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Contents

      ACT I

      ACT II

      ACT III

      ACT III

      SCENE I

      SCENE II

      THE

      PORTRAIT OF A GENIUS

      (after Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler)

      Laszlo Solymar was born and educated in Hungary. In the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution he escaped to England. He joined the University of Oxford in 1966 where he is now an Emeritus Professor. During his career he had Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Paris, Copenhagen, Osnabruck, Berlin, Madrid and Budapest.

      BY THE SAME AUTHOR

      Getting the Message: A History of Communications

      The Rhineland War: 1936

      To the memory

      of geniuses,

      recognized and unrecognized

      ACT I

      (A large well furnished lounge decorated in dark colours. Two doors to the left and the right lead to the study and the hall. French doors in the middle open out to the garden. Downstage along the right wall there is a fire place with some logs in it and two easy chairs in front. Above the fire place hangs the portrait of a handsome elderly man in a general’s uniform. Upstage stands a piano that has obviously seen better days.)

      (Aunt Julia comes in from the hall followed by George. She is a comely, sweet-tempered-looking old lady wearing a simple dress. George is in his early thirties. He wears baggy trousers, a pullover and a tie.)

      GEORGE (while still in the doorway): Surely, you can stay for a little while.

      AUNT JULIA: I am sorry, George, I really can’t. Poor Renata is unwell again. I must go home. I’ve just come for a second to see the newly-weds. How’s Helen? She must have fresh air when she comes down (She goes over to the French doors and throws them wide open.) It’s been such a wonderful trip, hasn’t it?

      GEORGE: Oh, Yes, very much so. Look Auntie Julia. See those suitcases full of the reprints and preprints I collected. Not bad, eh? Not to mention three further packages of similar size which I sent straight to the Department.

      AUNT JULIA (with admiration): Well, well, George, You certainly haven’t wasted your time on your honeymoon.

      GEORGE: No, I most certainly haven’t. Come on, Aunt Julia. Take your coat off. Let me help you.

      AUNT JULIA (while he is doing it): It’s just as though you were still at home with us. (George puts the coat on the settee. As he turns back Aunt Julia takes both his hands and looks at him.) What a blessing it is to have you again, George, as large as life. Poor John’s own boy.

      GEORGE: Dear Aunt Julia. You’ve been both mother and father to me.

      AUNT JULIA: Yes, I know you’ll always have a corner in your heart for your old aunts. (With a sudden change.) But goodness, George, you’re a married man! And to think it was you who carried off Helen Gascoigne! The lovely Helen Gascoigne. The daughter of General Gascoigne. God bless his soul.

      GEORGE (humming a little with a satisfied smile): Yes, I expect a certain number of my good friends are going about this town feeling pretty envious. Eh?

      AUNT JULIA: And to think that you were able to have such a long honeymoon! Three months, three full months.

      GEORGE: Paris, Marseille, Munich, Berlin, Rome, Tokyo, Osaka . . . and then the States—

      AUNT JULIA: I can hardly believe it. You’ve been to all those places. But (changing her tone) it must have cost a lot of money, George.

      GEORGE: Ye-es. But you know I got two travelling Fellowships, the one from the Royal Optical Society, the big one, and a fairly substantial grant from the Lady Margaret Peabody Bequest, and old Bloomington—you know he always liked me—added another thousand to it from the travel funds available to him.

      AUNT JULIA: Still, I don’t see how you can possibly have made that do for two.

      GEORGE: Well, no that could hardly be expected. Eh?

      AUNT JULIA: Especially, when one is travelling with a fine lady.

      GEORGE: Yes, it has been quite expensive. But Helen had to have that sort of trip. Five star hotels, the best restaurants, everything.

      AUNT JULIA: It was money well spent. But tell me, what do you think of the house?

      GEORGE: Splendid! Absolutely splendid! I’m specially glad for Helen’s sake. She often said before we got engaged that this was the only house she really cared to live in the whole city of Westbourne.

      AUNT JULIA: Yes, Helen had to have this house. Just imagine, an Edwardian mansion fully restored to its former beauty.

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