Words, Not Images, Power Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Farnsworth Invention’
If one were to psychoanalyze the work of Aaron Sorkin, one might infer a problem with authority figures. Look at Kaffee vs. Jessep (Tom Cruise vs. Jack Nicholson) in A Few Good Men,
Toby vs. President Bartlet in “The West Wing” and Matt vs. Jack Rudolph
in “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” and what you’ll find in each case
is a highly gifted underdog, with a taste for booze, who must confront
a powerful, experienced bossman. In Sorkin’s gripping new drama, The Farnsworth Invention,
this formula is once again put into action as Philo Farnsworth, a
lowly, genius, alcoholic farmer from Utah competes against David
Sarnoff, the President of RCA, to invent and patent television.Sorkin is an emphatic writer and this play is testament to his skills in creating zippy dialog that entertains and educates an audience even if it often sounds more like the playwright himself doing the talking...
Read full "Farnsworth" here.
Photo by Joan Marcus
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I
attend many small theatrical productions and am always willing to take
the risk in the hopes of seeing a few good seconds of acting, hearing a
couple of great lines or experiencing an odd moment that leads to
something transcendent. Getting trapped in a three-hour production
about a family wracked by death due to the country’s negligent
manufacture and disposal or plutonium is not really my idea of a good
time. Throw in a ululating Native American spirit with a chip on her
shoulder, and things get even more difficult to handle. 
