Alex Wright

Bucky! The Musical

January 13, 2003

wouldn't that have been a catchier title than R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe?

still, D.W. Jacob's one-man show, now at San Francisco's Artaud Theater, makes for a playful and surprisingly riveting trip through the headspace of the legendary inventor, architect, cosmologist, radical humanist, and self-proclaimed "design scientist" who most of us remember mainly as the creator of the geodesic dome - and namesake of the "Buckyball" (aka Buckminsterfullerene).

actor Ron Campbell doesn't so much impersonate Fuller as create a wholly original character out of Fuller's writings; every word of dialogue is a verbatim quote. Fuller the writer could be brilliantly, beautifully idiosyncratic - a Beat poet with an Einstein IQ:

Let architects sing of aesthetics that bring
Rich clients in hordes to their knees;
Just give me a home, in a great circle dome
Where stresses and strains are at ease.

amen.

> more Fuller-isms

File under:

_____________________
« tell it, ted | the Sakyong speaks »