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Thursday, Jul 29, 2010
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It all adds up for The Adding Machine |
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| It all adds up for The Adding Machine | ||
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by Miryam Gordon -
SGN A&E Writer The Adding Machine New Century Theatre Company At ACT Theatre Through December 13 This production is cool. Very, very cool. It's so cool, you shouldn't miss it. The Adding Machine, by Elmer Rice, is being done by a new theater company of a collection of well-known working actors in town, New Century Theatre Company, who feel that Seattle is missing smaller Equity (union) companies. This is their first effort toward filling that niche. They are playing at ACT Theatre. John Langs directs a marvelous, stylized, pitch-perfect cast that demonstrates the "class" with which NCTC wants to present its plays. While it's inexpensively mounted (comparatively), there is nothing "cheap" about it. The first act, focused on Mr. and Mrs. Zero, his job and her homelife, is all precise rhythm and black-and-white. The second act is all in color, set in the afterlife (you'll see why Mr. Zero dies), with lyrical musical accompaniment. The Adding Machine is an older play about Mr. and Mrs. Zero (and their friends Mr. and Mrs. One, Two, Three, Four&). It's set in the 1920s New York, with stereotypical attitudes of that time toward marriage, women, work, and foreign (black) people. It's a harsh look at Mr. Zero's 25 years on the job with no reward, and what happens when he gets fired because a machine can do his job faster and much, much cheaper. We're used to that happening all the time, these days, but it was the beginning of the trend. This is Elmer Rice's take on how we experience meaning in our lives, and whether we are what we "do" or some other way of judging who we are, a theme as contemporary today as it was then. Mr. Zero is played by Paul Morgan Stetler with deadpan accuracy in the beginning, warming up later to experience real emotion. Stetler holds our attention, but is supported by three other topnotch actors. Amy Thone plays Mrs. Zero, trapped in her own bitterness over marrying the wrong guy, in a life she aspired to exceed. Thone's job is to set the tone of the whole with a long opening monologue filled with nagging, gossip, demands, and complaints. (You'll want to listen carefully to get used to the realistic - but different from ours - accents the cast uses.) Mr. Zero has a co-worker, Daisy, played by Jennifer Lee Taylor, who is his long-suffering counterpart at work, and secretly in love with him. Taylor is heart-wrenching in her misery at not getting any warmth or encouragement from Zero. Once Zero gets to the afterworld, he is oriented toward what to expect by Shrdlu, played by Darragh Kennan. Kennan subtly demonstrates his anguish at the fact that the afterlife is not what he expected to find. It's funny, surprising, and thought-provoking. Sets, costumes, lights, and particularly sound, work together to create the called-for atmospheres crisply. These are designed by Jennifer Zeyl, Pete Rush, Geoff Korf and Rob Witmer. While they all make wonderful contributions, in this case the sound is rivetingly essential. Kudos, also, to the un-credited makeup designer. The excellent ensemble provides a similar feeling to a dance company piece. They move with machine-like precision through the play. Each moment is important, each gesture and word necessary. That's a rare feeling in theater. Applause to the company for a daring production that succeeds, and for daring to start a new effort in the midst of uncertain economic times. If the company can keep delivering the goods, its success should be assured - if the Gods reward excellence with success. For more information, go to www.newcenturytheatrecompany.org or call 206-292-7676 (ACT Box Office). Comments on reviews go to sgncritic@gmail.com. |
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