The Inventor Of All Things

big word performance

Company website

Forgotten Jewish Hero.
Forgotten Hungarian Hero.
Forgotten Physicist Hero.

… About the first man who ever thought of the Atomic Bomb.
Leo Szilard...
“A man too preposterous for fiction”.
So he's a Jewish Hungarian on the run from the Nazis in London in 1933.
When he has the single scariest idea any human being has ever had.
The Atomic Bomb.
And worse, even worse, the home of Physics then is Berlin.
Which has just become Nazi Berlin.
It is what happens next.
It is a true story.
He was very funny.
And prize-winningly eccentric.
And pretty much no-one has ever heard of him.

The 2015 Fringe hit remounted.
English writer/ performer Jem Rolls has done more Fringe festivals than anyone else on earth.
This will be his first run in a Canadian theatre outside of Fringe World

A new take on a very big History. By seeing it through the eyes and life of the very first man to think of it.

Refugee, genius, joker, sole survivor, eventual spouse.
Eccentric, name-dropper, Martian, Einsteinian sidekick.
Pompous, self-indulgent. Would not give up. Or shut up.
Instigator of charities, Washington Lobbies, Manhattan Projects, nuclear secrecy.

• MASSIVE HIT ACROSS CANADA, SUMMER 2015. Multiple sell-outs.
• DOZENS OF RAVE REVIEWS. See Below.
• YEARS OF RESEARCH. Bodleian Library, Budapest, etc.

Jem Rolls harnesses the narrative power. Of a story. Where a man. A very unusual man. Has in his head. For years. Only his head. The scariest idea. Any human being has ever had.
Told in five narrative slices. Taking us through the key years of 33-45. With many interjections to convey the range, humour and times of this extraordinary man.

• More than any other individual, it was Szilard who stopped the Nazi Bomb.

Tickets are available:
Online
At the door the night of the performance
Or during MainLine Theatre's Box Office hours (Tuesday to Saturday from 2PM to 6PM)

But be aware that same day purchases are only available by telephone or at the MainLine Theatre Box Office

SCROLL DOWN FOR BRILLIANT REVIEWS

★★★★★
The StarPhoenix,
August 2015
“In 1933, Leo Szilard stepped off a curb in London and invented the atomic bomb.
The Inventor of All Things, a one-man show written and performed by Jem Rolls, tells
Szilard’s remarkable story.
It finds the Hungarian physicist fleeing Nazi-threatened Europe, collaborating with
Einstein, and consorting with the great minds of the 20th century. It also happens to be true. One of history’s great characters, as well as one of its great geniuses, Szilard was
responsible for a staggering list of inventions.
He was, as Rolls says, “a man too preposterous for fiction.” And, in Rolls’s
capable hands, he comes to life.
Rolls is a deeply compelling speaker. He understands how to use his rich voice and
angular body for maximum effect. He is also a good researcher, cobbling together an
obscure story from shards and fragments. THE INVENTOR OF ALL THINGS IS TERRIFIC ”.

Superb
Colin MacLean, Edmonton Sun,
August 2015
★★★★ 1/2 stars

★★★★
Liz Nicholls, Edmonton Journal,
August 2015
In his new show, Jem Rolls, performance poet/storyteller extra-ordinaire, is a man with a mission, an unexpected one at that. He is determined, with all the high-speed verbal dexterity and rhetorical emphasis at his disposal, to persuade us of the unjust — no, outrageous! — neglect by history of the now-obscure Hungarian physicist who first thought up the science of the atomic bomb, then figured out how to keep this lethal knowledge from Hitler. With his usual buzz-saw vigour and gift of the gab, Rolls sets about righting this wrongful sidelining of Leo Szilard, “a right raging hero,” as the chorus has it, and evidently a genius and epic-scale weirdo. Was he unrecognized in the end because of simmering anti-Semitism? Because he was so “easy to dislike … not a mad scientist, a maddening scientist?” Rolls is a specialist in the poetry of lists, with a witty turn of phrase. And his signature aggressive delivery seems particularly suited to the oddities of his subject here. He brings a wildly multi-faceted character to life, in strokes that have all kinds of political edges. Eccentric portraiture by an eccentric performer of an eccentric.

While the play’s narrative arc is worth the price of admission, its author’s mastery of the spoken word is what makes the show... fascinating Mooney on Theatre, July 2015

Dynamic raconteur, Kevin Prokosh, Winnipeg Free Press, July 2015.

Story telling and hidden history at its best... energetic stage presence... proves why Rolls has strongly maintained his stellar reputation
Stuart Nulman, MONTREAL TIMES, June 2015

The unbelievable true story of Hungarian-American physicist and inventor Leo Szilard... Jem Rolls is dynamic, funny, and passionate …proves that truth is stranger than fiction in this incredibly entertaining and engaging story … reminiscent of a party guest telling a story over dinner... It is my belief that his story has enriched my life. Apartment613, June 2015

A Gem of a performance!... Rolls turns the life story of this incredible human being, who escaped the Nazis, into the masterful adventure of a superhero. The range of his delivery is enormous and it is this playful delivery that stimulates our attention and keeps us glued for a whole hour. Alvina Ruprecht CAPITAL CRITICS CIRCLE, June 2015

Forget Tarantino’s fictional Inglourious Basterds, Jem Rolls says a real-life Jew gave the Nazis a beating... A juicy slice of revisionist history that’s as passionate, funny, and eccentric as Szilárd himself. Torontoist, July 2015

Strange but true, the bizarre story of crazy genius Leo Szilard... includes Nazis, martians, gas refrigerators, and the atomic bomb. A superb story told this enthusiastically is a history lesson no one should skip
The Revue, July 2015

Tenacious and beloved performer... Rolls’ enthusiasm and sense of disbelief that such a man as Szilard could exist is infectious.
Jim Burke, MONTREAL GAZETTE, June 2015

65 minutes
Pour âges / For ages 13+
Pas de retardataires / No latecomers