The debut play from a Seattle theatre company last night was one of those plays you know you’re going to remember for a really long time.
All the papers have reviewed The Adding Machine already, so I’ll just sum what it was to witness a 1923 play whose social commentary remains remarkably apt today.
The play
Without giving too much away, the story is about a guy who adds numbers and loses his job to an adding machine. But there’s way more going on than just that. Here’s a hint: his name is “Mr. Zero.”
Hopelessness, despair, joylessness… these are the things you see in the guy’s life. And the one choice he makes to change it is quite a shock. The playwright worked in law before taking up a pen, and you can tell when they play a courtroom scene.
But besides a great story, I have to hand it to the cast.
Kudos to Seattle’s own New Century Theatre Company. I loved the costuming. Drab colors giving way later in the story to real brights, a subtle way of portraying mood. There’s a lot more to say here, about music and rhythm and characters, but all of that is more interesting to experience than read.
Impediments to getting there
A little sleety, a little haily, King County Department of Transportation’s mid-intersection uprooting of part of the Pike/Pine corridor, and four missed #43’s notwithstanding, Design Kompany scooted to ACT Theatre last night to see the best play I’ve caught since Waiting for Godot. (Apologies to the Washington Ensemble Theatre, whose tiny theatre I totally enjoy but whose plays I find a little melancholy and trying too hard to be smart. Sorry.)
Maybe my preference has something to do with the existentialist nature of The Adding Machine and Godot: questioning where we beings fit “in the big picture,” and “what does it all mean?”
I mean, only a play gets to ask with voice and movement. If it were a book, you’d just be hearing your own voice in your head. If it were a movie, you’d only be seeing it in 2D. You know what I mean?
A good play feels like a lived experience.
Last day to see it: tonight
For those of you who are bored tonight here in Seattle, I highly recommend catching Elmer Rice’s The Adding Machine, produced by the New Century Theatre Co.
Today is the last it’s showing here.
The Adding Machine
A play by Elmer Rice
Saturday, December 16
ACTTheatre.org/…
Tickets are $25 and up.
For more information, check out the ACT Theatre listing for The Adding Machine.
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