One-man show recalls brilliance of an American original

‘Bucky’ Fuller revived, perhaps just in time for new ideas to flourish

By Eric Bartels

The Portland Tribune, Oct 20, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

© Owen Carey

Doug Tompos as Buckminster Fuller shares the joy and slight regrets of living to see some of his greatest inventions be largely lauded but rarely commercially successful in the Portland Center State production of “R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe.”

Stagecraft is almost a secondary consideration in “R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe,” which opened at Portland Center Stage Friday.

That is not to say that actor Doug Tombos is not effective in bringing to life the iconoclastic genius who enlivened the 20th century with his brilliant if sometimes underappreciated ideas about the world both around and within us.

Nor does Center Stage ignore the technical details of D.W. Jacobs’ deeply satisfying one-man show, which premiered at the San Diego Repertory Theatre in 2000. Video screens fill with highlights of Fuller’s life, illustrate his various innovations and follow Tombos as he sketches scientific principles on butcher paper he pulls from a gigantic roll.

There are oohs and ahhs when the actor uses a collapsible model to demonstrate how two triangles can be converted into the eight-sided tetrahedron and even more when he shows off his icosahedron, a fantastical contraption that Fuller presents as the basis for many of his pioneering ideas about the design of the universe.

And there’s fun stuff, too. “Bucky,” as Fuller was often called, leads a singalong, borrows jewelry from the crowd and gets the audience to participate in a curious little trick that seems to provide proof of the planet’s rotation.

But the best part of the show is Fuller’s own rich story. We see him as one of the most profound thinkers of his or any generation, but also an oddity: a free thinker who cared little for social standing and whose visionary ideas often put his at odds with those in power.

Born to a degree of privilege in New England, Fuller nonetheless knew hardship.

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