Einstein was a scientist of such stature that he could look back across almost three hundred years to Isaac Newton without having his view obstructed by those who came in between. The five papers Einstein published at the age of twenty six became the foundation for new theories of great importance – “blazing rockets which in the dark of the night suddenly cast a brief but powerful illumination over an immense unknown region”.

Within a few years the most perceptive scientists were describing Einstein as “the Copernicus of the twentieth century”, while magazines called him “Charlie Chaplin with the brow of Shakespeare.” What Gabriel Emanuel has achieved in his entertaining and thought-provoking play, is to make a line drawing of Einstein that suggests the spirit of the man. This was a very great man, an inquisitive and lovable figure, plagued nonetheless with doubt, disappointment and failure, in common with the rest of mankind.