Albert's Boy (Modern Plays)

Blackly humorous drama of Einstein's tortured conscience

Why do you think I've been locked in this room? I've been grieving for a wife, a sister, three hundred thousand Japanese civilians, the presence of a universe gone mad, and the absence of a theory to explain it.

Albert Einstein is not feeling too good. His house is empty, his cat is missing, he can't remember where he put his violin - and he is slowly driving himself insane as he struggles to solve the unanswerable question - "Did I do the right thing?"

When a family friend, newly released from a Chinese POW camp, comes to visit, a warm reunion soon becomes an explosive collision of opposing beliefs on the subjects of evil, the winning of wars, and the construction of the world's first weapon of mass destruction - the atomic bomb.

Albert's Boy commemorates the World Year of Physics, the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the 50th anniversary of Einsteins death.This is the second play by 22 year old James Graham. His first play, Coal not Dole played at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002 and subsequently toured the North of England. He is writer in residence at the Finborough Theatre.

Publication ties in with the world premiere at the Finborough Theatre, London, 19 July 2005

"Promising new playwright James Graham succeeds in producing a Ken Loach style comedy drama" Scotsman (on Coal not Dole)