Love, physics, technology form bond in ‘Einstein’s Girl’
The intricacies of science and technology coupled with the unpredictability of love came together in the one-time performance of “Einstein’s Girl” on Saturday, Feb. 27, at Malibu Playhouse.
Actress, comedian and singer Gia Mora navigated through those topics using comedy and song, making the audience laugh while also informing them about scientific topics such as theoretical physics, space-time and supermassive black holes. She wove those themes into humorous stories of love and relationships.
In one bit, Mora taught the audience about gravitational waves in a way “only Malibuites could really understand.” She simulated an exercise class while her accompanist Charlie Barnett played the melody to “Let’s Get Physical” on the piano.
She took an exercise band and stretched it in several directions while pretending to be a fitness instructor, all the while telling the audience that the band’s movements were how gravitational waves behaved in space time.
Mora called herself Einstein’s Girl, and wanted to pay tribute to the famous scientist through song.
“When teleportation does exist, I know where I’ll make my first stop: to thank the professor in a special way,” Mora
said.
She a sang a number using Albert Einstein’s equation for the mass-energy equivalence, E=mc2. In the jazzy song, she said, “When you’re in love, it feels like falling faster than the speed of light.”
In between songs, Mora shot off several one-liners, often getting laughs from the crowd.
Another example of Mora’s melding of love and science was during a song about the Big Bang and the origin of the universe. But that particular song had some bitterness attached to it, detailing that when an ex-boyfriend kissed her, she “exploded with a great big bang,” only to declare later that the man would not return her calls and “men are merely biological necessities.”
Mora took humorous shots at modern technology as well, talking about online dating websites and her begrudging need for the Internet.
“Internet, I don’t want to lose you,” she sang. “Internet, you’re the only love that’s true.”
In a segment about breaking up with a boyfriend, Mora compared the ordeal to what happens when mater crosses the event horizon of a super-massive black hole in space.
“If you fall in a supermassive black hole, you are stretched into a thin strip of matter,” Mora said. And as you approach the singularity inside of the black hole, even your molecules are obliterated — pretty accurate description of how I felt at that time.”
The song that followed her story chronicled what she did after failing to find a match on dating site EHarmony.com. She became frustrated and closed her computer, but soon opened it again, and called out to her Canadian ex-boyfriend she discussed moments before.
“I have a public confession to make,” Mora said before going into song. “So Mr. Maple Leaf, if you’re out there, just so you know that sometimes I still Google you when I’m all alone and feeling blue.”
An impressive portion of Mora’s performance featured her singing the words to a “Missed Connections” post from Craigslist that she printed on a piece of paper. She sped up and slowed down her speech to coincide with the rhythm and melody of the piano.
For information on other shows at the playhouse, visit www.malibuplayouse.org.
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