Friday, May 28, 2010

Intelligence-Slave

This is another exciting season at the Alley Theatre with three world premieres: Intelligence-Slave, Gruesome Playground Injuries and Wonderland.  Intelligence-Slave opened on Wednesday and runs through June 20.  Kenneth Lin is the playwright whose inspiration for this work came from reading an article about the concentration camp prisoner who invented the world's first hand-held four function calculator, the Curta calculator.

The inventor is being kept alive in order to complete this extraordinary break-through.  He clearly understands that he must show progress, but realizes that his value diminishes the moment the invention is complete.  There are life and death consequences to his actions. 

Though the consequences in our daily lives are not as dramatic, we are often held hostage by intelligence- slaves.  Our intelligence-slaves are our colleague experts who think that knowledge creates finite rather than infinite power.  They are afraid to reveal too much for fear of diluting their usefulness, or worse yet becoming obsolete.  As a result, we must make decisions and take action based upon incomplete information. 

Only in safe environments do creativity and innovation flourish.

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