You don’t have to be a genius to catch onto what’s happening in “Einstein,” the play currently being shown at Actors’ Summit, a Knight Arts grantee. The one-act drama, written by playwright Willard Simms, ostensibly captures Albert Einstein at his home office in Princeton, N.J. in 1946. The audience is treated as invited guests – all of whom have been requested by Einstein so that he can set the record straight about his life.

German-born Albert Einstein (who hailed from Munich but attended school in Bern, Switzerland) was in the United States when Adolph Hitler was beginning his rise to power in Germany from 1933 onward. Because of Hitler’s dreadful and deadly anti-Semitic policies, Einstein couldn’t return home. Instead he remained in this country, took up citizenship, and landed a professorship at Princeton, where he lived out his life.

Always mindful of what Hitler was up to, Einstein and some other scientists realized that the Nazis were doing research that would lead to the atomic bomb. To offset it, Einstein wrote a letter to then President Franklin D. Roosevelt stating as much and that something needed to be done. It was. The U.S. jumped into the forefront, developed nuclear weapons (which were ultimately used on Japan), and the war ended.

In this play, we see Einstein wanting to make it known that he was never in favor of his research in nuclear power being used for warfare and the destruction of thousands of people. He regretted it, even though the press and critics at the time blamed him for the horror that was to come when the bombs were unleashed and the world was set on the course of the Cold War stand-off (with ongoing threats to human life).

Along the way to making this case, though, Einstein (played with incredible skill and imagination, not to mention a great deal of humor and lookalike hairdo and mannerisms by veteran actor Brian Zoldessy) lures the guests/audience in by his self-deprecating manner. The character befriends members of the audience, makes them like him and, in effect, want to hang out with him – all with the intent it would subtly seem of siding with him at long last.

Brian Zoldessy as Albert Einstein in “Einstein.” Photo courtesy of Actors’ Summit

Zoldessy is marvelous in his characterization of Einstein. In the opening moments, he appears in silhouette with a cigar and a loose-fitting jacket, hair in the iconic Einstein frazzle, looking every bit the part of the physics genius.

Zoldessy captures Einstein’s charm as he tells probably false tales of getting lost trying to find his way home from the Princeton campus to the truthful stories of him not getting along with his teachers. There’s always been the incorrect rumor that Einstein wasn’t a smart student. Turns out he wasn’t an obedient one. Lots of people think the one trait signals the other. Geniuses don’t, and for sure Einstein didn’t. He questioned his teachers and probably drove them crazy, as he says.

It’s the human side of Einstein that this play and the acting of Zoldessy capture. As the character says at one point, he wasn’t a genius all day long. He had a life to lead, just as we all do. Einstein liked classical music, especially that of another genius, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He loved to play the violin. He had a fondness for ice cream. And he liked a good cigar. More than all that, he seemed to have great affection for his wife, who used to tease the genius in certain aspects of his life.

Simms’ play is at times humorous, poignant, historically rich and psychologically revealing. Actor Zoldessy lets us see it all. Director Neil Thackaberry apparently led the actor to the best moments for wandering the stage when the character was reveling in one thing or another, but then dead-eyeing the audience to make a dramatic (and historic) point.

It’s a good play, but it requires an appreciation for one-person dramas where the focus is tight, without much stage movement and set changes to keep the pace going. There’s no intermission, yet with watchful attention, the time flies.

Willard Simms’ “Einstein” will be performed at 8 p.m. from Thursday-Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday through February 1, at the Actors’ Summit theater space in Greystone Hall, 103 S. High St., Akron; 330-374-7568; www.actorssummit.org. Tickets are $33 ($28 for seniors and $10 for students).