By John Mattera
Directed by Rob Scharlow
October 1, 1998 - October 17, 1998
Greenview Arts Center

In 1888 he was public enemy number one. In 1998 he's a page 10 footnote. Histories most elusive killer is loose on the streets of Chicago. Can a writer from another century bring him to justice?

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

As John Leslie Stephenson says, "We live in a chaotic cosmic house." As our society and the world continues to shift and change, our lives take rapid turns and we learn to survive and beat the odds. Within a world of violence, chaos & destruction, we find peace within ourselves and within the people that are close to us. Our morals and ideas are corrupted by thoughts of the world around us. Whether it be disease, death, life, crime, punishment, or growth, we learn to accept the ever changing concepts of life in order to survive and learn.

Within the boundaries of Time After Time, we find two men struggling to find their own utopian visions of the world around them. H.G. Wells and Jack the Ripper are thrown into a crazed and fast paced world that they could never possibly understand until they find themselves experiencing life and the tribulations that present themselves... The terror of being alone in a surrounding that does not make sense, that does not revolve around their ideas of life or the concept of the moral values they grew up knowing dominates the world of the play. There is an unbelievable urge to search for the new hidden truths andd to find the righteous path of mankind. One man who believes in a perfect Utopian societal life and another man who finds his destructive ways to fit in perfectly with everyday life clash violently in order to obtain their one true goal, self-gratification.

We can never begin to understand the impact that Jack the Ripper has on London society. Keep in mind the ideas and concepts presented within the world of the play are not historically factual, but instead are simply words and thoughts that are sporadically forced into two hours of theatrical entertainment. The history of the Ripper offers us so much, but what if this story were true? The history books do tell us that the Ripper was never found. If it was humanly possible to travel through time, what would occur and how would the world we live in presently react to a madman like the Ripper stalking our city streets. It's up to you to make that judgement call. Open your mind to the unexpected and let your thoughts take over as you take a trip through time and experience one of the greatest criminal minds of all time. This is Good vs. Evil and in the end we must belive that Good will dominate. Things are not always what they seem and we must understand that there are riffs that prevent certain aspects of life from happening. Open your mind and let yourself be taken in by Time After Time.
-R.J.S.

Review

New Millennium Theatre Company, at the Greenview Arts Center. Nicholas Meyer wrote and directed the 1979 film Time After Time, which spawned a novelization, which spawned John Mattera’s stage adaptation. But Meyer isn’t credited anywhere in this production. That’s probably just as well: though the plot still concerns H.G. Wells traveling through time to track down Jack the Ripper and fall in love in contemporary America, much of what made Meyer’s film such a delight is missing.

Absent are his fanciful, romantic touches; in their place are pervasive gloom and a disturbing misogyny – every contemporary female character here is far more hapless than a Victorian heroine, displaying less common sense and street smarts. Absent also are fine performers on the order of Malcom McDowell, David Warner, and Mary Steenburgen, whose considerable charisma and conviction compensated for any gaps in the film’s logic.

Lacking these assets, this New Millennium production makes it impossible Not ignore the story’s ridiculous coincidences and gaping holes: for example, if your time traveling ability allowed you to know when and where your lover would be murdered, wouldn’t you check her into the Hilton that day rather than wait around for the killer? The main trouble, however, is that the story is too flimsy to support any philosophical weight: what’s effective as entertainment doesn’t translate easily into high art.