The Value of Life at the Science Museum continues to chug along quite nicely. Come see it! I perform on Saturdays with Jen Scott and Sundays with Stephanie Ray Long. We’ve been getting good crowds, and audiences have been quite affected by it. By and large, the response has been very positive, with comments to the effect of, “People need to see this. It’s important.” It’s also very rewarding to do live theatre in the Science Museum, because you get audiences who aren’t theatre-goers. There’ve been families who probably have almost no exposure to live performance, and they see, enjoy, and are affected by this show, shaking our hands afterwards and telling us, “Wonderful job!” It’s pretty gratifying in a way that a lot of plays aren’t.

When you work at a science museum, I’ve discovered, you get certain rare but recurring visitor comments that give you pause. Last year, Jen was doing a dinosaur-related presentation, and was approached by a mother and her children afterwards. After sitting through the presentation, they scoffed at the idea of dinosaurs, denying their existence and dismissing them as a Godless ploy. First of all, why would those people be at a Science Museum to begin with? And how can you, as a Science Museum employee, respond? Do you let it slide (knowing that you can’t change their mind) for the sake of keeping your customers happy, or do you give them the science and piss them off, prompting a Creationist jihad against the museum? It’s quite different from my days at the D-Day Museum, when the comments were easily dealt with, such as, “I thought Iwo Jima was during Vietnam” and “Why doesn’t this reproduction of the 1940′s Pledge of Allegience say ‘under God?’ It’s a liberal assault on God!”

One awkward and unnerving comment that we’ve received from The Value of Life audience members on more than one occasion is a comparison between the Holocaust and abortion. What do you say to that? I’ve nodded and listened, but given no verbal agreement or disagreement. The central controversy over abortion arises out of whether or not you believe a fetus is a person, which is a fuzzy area, factually speaking. And whichever side you believe, it is inherently a big deal to you. It’s not an argument over whether a particular dinosaur had feathers; you’re talking about whether or not something is murder. If you have the moral belief that a fetus is a person, and therefore, abortion is the large-scale killing of human beings, then the sentiment is perfectly understandable, and even if you disagree, you can’t fault someone for that. If you believe that it’s not a person, then you would find the comparison absolutely appalling and infuriating. Either side of that argument is a matter of opinion and faith, and, unlike with dinosaurs, there’s not really a scientific, objective position to which you can defer. Both sides are equally valid and equally assailable. All we can do is steer the conversation back to the Holocaust itself. Maybe we need a scripted line to use when confronted with those comments. Maybe we should just flat-out say, “I’m sorry, I can’t comment on that. But if you’d like to talk about the Holocaust…”

My counterpart Bob joked that, when the Republican National Convention comes, the Science Museum will just have to shut down.

What: The Value of Life, a 15-minute theatrical presentation which accompanies the special exhibit Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race

Where: The Science Musem of Minnesota, 120 West Kellogg Blvd, St. Paul, MN 55102

When: Thursdays & Fridays at noon and 1:00 PM, Saturdays & Sundays at 1:00, 2:00, and 3:00 PM. Now through May 4th.