Resistor

(Royal Court Jerwood Theater Upstairs, London; 88 seats; £15 ($28) TOP)

By Matt Wolf

A Royal Court Jerwood Theater Upstairs presentation of a play in one act by Rob Evans. Directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins.

Stella - Claudie Blakley Paula - Sukie Smith Alex - Andrew Scott David - Mark Bonnar Policeman - Mark Leadbetter

London is by all accounts one of the world's most surveillance-intensive of cities, so it would seem tailor-made for Rob Evans' " A Girl in a Car with a Man " were the play itself less trying. As it is, the video screens dominating designer Ultz's circular Royal Court Upstairs playing space suggest an arena for voyeurs, which makes it doubly odd to find that the evening is actually rather dull. You come away having clocked Evans' point and yet unmoved, as if the prosaic nature of the title were the show's affective sum total.

It's not unusual to find a thesis taking the place of an actual play, which may explain why Evans' Court debut feels both skillfully worked out and utterly hermetic. Taking its cue from the abduction of a young girl (hence the title) witnessed only on video, the writing goes on to relate three separate narratives that all share an interest in surfaces, in lives that take place via the reflection or image of living rather than the thing itself.

Though more ambitious than its immediate predecessor in this space, Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder's "Fresh Kills," " Girl " feels both overlong and incomplete, as if Evans were hopping among stories, none of which really stands up on its own.

This is one dramatist who certainly likes to let his characters go on -- and on: It's rare in the theater to feel as if we're being talked at to quite such a degree by people who have barely earned our attention. No sooner has Shopping Channel presenter Stella (Claudie Blakley) driven hundreds of miles north from London and stumbled into the cottage of David (Mark Bonnar) than she's divulging her life history to the Scotsman, who just wants to be left to fix his radio.

Why bend someone else's ear when you can amuse yourself? That's very much the separate odyssey embarked upon by Alex (Andrew Scott), a young Irishman busily recording his own video diary of life on the gay prowl. His existence asks the same question -- how do we connect? -- that keeps the raindrenched Stella chattering away, in an effort to fill what Beckett famously described as "no lack of void." (Stella, tellingly, refers at one point to "this great silence.")

One kind of connection can preempt another, as the play's third scenario makes plain. Paula (Sukie Smith) is so disturbed by closed-circuit TV footage of the disappearing girl that she sets out on her own urban trawl, oblivious to the cries within her home of a clearly anxious baby. Back indoors, when not staring, zombie-like, at the television, she trades notes with a policeman (Mark Leadbetter) who suffers from his own encroaching blankness. "I'm very unemotional," he says. "You gotta be, the things I see."

" Girl " could usefully do with building some emotion, instead of wearing its anomie on its deadening sleeve. After a while, one gets the impression that director Joe Hill-Gibbins has understood the necessary environment for the play somewhat better than how to populate it, and Evans' script isn't easy on his cast.

Stella, for instance, might have been intended as a manic yet irresistible life force, but Blakley, a good actress, seems as exhausted by her as we ultimately are.

Carrying the burden of keeping up a running monologue across nearly two hours without intermission, Scott can't fully peel back Alex's primary narcissism to expose the solitude and emptiness beneath -- or make us rejoice in his epiphany at the play's close. Smith, in turn, hasn't much to work with as the apparently suicidal Paula, who has witnessed one social perturbation too many and simply snapped.

It's Bonnar as the onetime photographer David (another person whose life has been defined by some kind of lens) who elicits what sympathy there is, as part of an unexpectedly upbeat conclusion that sees an end to the rain that has punctuated the play throughout. And as Ultz and Johanna Town's lighting lets in the sun, wouldn't you know, David's radio even starts to work? A guy in a room with his radio: Now there's a play.

Sets and costumes, Ultz; lighting, Ultz and Johanna Town; sound, Paul Arditti. Opened Nov. 29, 2004; reviewed Dec. 6. Running time: 1 HOUR, 45 MIN.

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Resistor

Resistor, component of an electric circuit that resists the flow of direct or alternating electric current. Resistors can limit or divide the current, reduce the voltage, protect an electric circuit, or provide large amounts of heat or light.

An electric current is the movement of charged particles called electrons from one region to another. The amount of resistance to the flow of current that a resistor causes depends on the material it is made of as well as its size and shape. Resistors are usually placed in electric circuits, which are devices formed when current moves through an electrical conductor (a material that allows the current to flow without much resistance, such as copper wire) and when the conductor makes a complete loop.

When a voltage, or electric potential, is applied to opposite ends of a circuit, it causes current to flow through the circuit. As the current flows, it encounters a certain amount of resistance from the conductor and any resistors in the circuit. Each material has a characteristic resistance. For example, wood is a bad conductor because it offers high resistance to the current; copper is a better conductor because it offers less resistance. In any electric circuit, the current in the entire circuit is equal to the voltage across that circuit divided by the resistance of the circuit. Resistors are often made to have a specific value of resistance so that the characteristics of the circuit can be accurately calculated.

Physicists sometimes explain the flow of current through a material, such as a resistor, by comparing it to water flowing through a pipe. A pressure difference maintained across two ends of the pipe by a pump is like the potential difference, or voltage, across a wire maintained by a battery. The rate of flow of water, analogous to the rate of flow of charge (current), depends on the type of pipe used. A long and thin water pipe offers more resistance than a short and thick one or a pipe that has obstructions. Similarly, the resistance of a conductor is dependent upon several factors, including its length, cross section, temperature, and a property called resistivity. Resistivity is an intrinsic characteristic of the material itself defined by the voltage divided by the density of current (current per unit cross section area) flowing across the material.

A material of high resistivity will require a higher electrical field to cause a given current density. If the resistivity of a material is known, as well as its dimensions, it can be used to calculate the resistance of a particular piece of material. The resistivity of a material is also dependent upon temperature. When a material resists the flow of current, it converts the electrical energy into other kinds of energy such as heat and light. This energy causes resistors to heat up and glow when enough current flows through them.

Resistors are designed to have a specific value of resistance. Most resistors used in electric circuits are cylindrical items a few millimeters long with wires at both ends to connect them to the circuit. Resistors are often color coded by three or four color bands that indicate the specific value of resistance. Some resistors obey Ohm’s law, which states that the current density is directly proportional to the electrical field when the temperature is constant. The resistance of a material that follows Ohm’s law is constant, or independent of voltage or current, and the relationship between current and voltage is linear. Modern electronic circuits depend on many devices that deviate from Ohm’s law. In devices such as diodes, the current does not increase linearly with voltage and is different for two directions of current.

Resistors can help divide voltages, and when combined with other elements can help convert voltages for a specific electrical design. Resistors can also be used to provide intense light or heat. For example, the heating element in a household cooking range is a resistor, as is the tungsten filament in a common incandescent lamp. Resistors with adjustable resistance are called rheostats or potentiometers. These types of resistors are used in appliances when the current needs to be adjusted or when the resistance needs to be varied, as with lights that dim or adjustable generators.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 961