Patrick Olson, who created and stars in Emergence, at The Pershing Square Signature Center, asks big questions about the ever-evolving human experience.
Things are not as they seem,” intones Patrick Olson, the creator and driving force behind Emergence, an uncanny conceptual performance that merges art, science, music, and monologue and may well be the most original Off-Broadway show this season. Accompanied by an ensemble of four singers, three dancers, and a rock band, Olson invites theatergoers on a transformative journey that tears off the veil from familiar things and explores the deepest aspects of the human experience.
Olson’s background uniquely equips him to take on this venture. He’s a composer, musician, educational science publisher, producer, entrepreneur, and performer. In 2021 he released his “Music for Scientists,” an animated music video that’s billed as “an artistic and emotional expression of the power surrounding profound scientific insights.”
Olson invites the audience on a transformational journey to the crossroads of art, science, and music in Emergence. Photographs by Russ Rowland.
Olson breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience during his 90-minute show. He peppers his scientific riffs with big questions like “Am I alive?” and “Are you alive?” And he proceeds to answer them based on logic and deductive reasoning:
Well, we ‘seem’ to be alive,
but in a very real way we are not.
You see, at the molecular level,
You and I are composed entirely
of elements like hydrogen, carbon, calcium
phosphorus, iron.
There is nothing in our bodies except elements
like these. That’s it.
And they are all inanimate.
None of that material is living.
So what is life,
If the constituent parts of life
. . . are not alive?
This meditation strategically leads into the show’s first song, whimsically entitled “Uh-Oh!” Although the song hardly resolves the profound questions about life that Olson has articulated, it does set the inquisitive and playful tone of this piece and allows the audience to ponder the conundrum of human life itself.
Olson wastes no time in going through a litany of other existentialist questions, some coming across as downright weird: “When are we?” Another query that at first seems quite straightforward—“What is falling?”—ultimately ends up having a twist. After all, the Earth being round, Olson points out, its gravitational pull doesn’t pull us down but in.
Other debates posed by Olson demand a bit more time to explore. For example, “How is it we are here?” Olson spins a yarn out of this question that not only intersects with science but predates it. And it all starts with the impact of the planet Jupiter, that bright behemoth that many folks mistake as a star in the twilight sky. Olson points out that its overbearing gravity acts as a gravitational shield for earth, deflecting incoming space debris. Often dubbed the vacuum cleaner of the solar system for its Hoover-like abilities, Olson also adds that its 80-odd moons can look like “a cosmic merry-go-round” in space.
That said, Jupiter has occasionally nodded on the job. And Olson tells the audience of one particular time that Jupiter’s gravitational reach wasn’t strong enough to protect earth.
Dancers Summer Sheldrick and Dana Liebezeit in Emergence at The Pershing Square Signature Center.
A long time ago an asteroid passed
Through Jupiter’s gravitational reach.
Jupiter’s presence changed the path of this asteroid,
Bending it on a collision course toward earth.
The rock was the size of a mountain,
Traveling at 40,000 miles per hour.
And it hit the earth with unspeakable violence,
Creating a global firestorm that killed
Much of life on earth, and
Most of the dinosaurs.
What good could have come from this?
Well, some small primitive mammals survived. . .
And human beings became the evolutionary
Descendants of these small creatures.
Indeed, Emergence is not for the faint of heart. According to Olson, the extinction of the dinosaurs is just one instance of the many cataclysmic events that have happened in our inner solar system over eons of geological time.
In spite of exposing the universe’s dark underbelly, Emergence is a terrific mind trip. The show’s lineup of songs—10 in all—flow beautifully and thematically dovetail with Olson’s scientific musings. The trio of dancers, who seem to appear out of the blue, fit in with the whole cosmic atmosphere, their graceful bodies flying across the stage like shooting stars. If these dancers are dynamos, the large-scale immersive video imagery creates ever-shifting visual pictures awash with psychedelic colors.
Still, Olson is the star turn of the show. It’s his gig; he gets the lion’s share of attention from the get-go, and rightly so.
Emergence is a genuinely refreshing addition to the season. Surprise, shock, the gasp of discovering that things are not as they seem are what make this work hum. It is a thought-provoking experience, and more.
Robert Murray and Lisa Dozier Shacket’s production of Patrick Olson Emergence runs through Jan. 7 at the Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd St.). Evening performances are Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday; matinees are Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets and more information, visit emergenceshow.com.
Book: Patrick Olson
Lyrics & Music: Patrick Olson
Lighting Design: Wasted Potential/Jordan Noltner
Visual Design: FutureTalk Inc./Jonathon Corbiere & Tyler Sammy and Wasted Potential/Nick Proctor
