In the expressionism play that Savannah Arts Academy chose for their one-act theatre competition performance this year, a man is displaced from his job by a machine.
Here's my query: why was that considered a novel idea?
After all, the mechanical adding machine had already been around for several hundred years.
The model developed in 1887 bears close resemblance to the modern machines used for totaling sums of numbers.
Yet, in "The Adding Machine", the lead character - 'Mr. Zero' - has had the task of being a human calculator for twenty-five years.
That would mean he began his career more than a decade after the invention of the machine that would end his career.
If the machine had been invented in some other country, I could accept that, but it was created here in the USA by Dorr Felt.
Moreover, the playwright, Elmer Rice, was also of American origin.
However, perhaps the disconnect was due to location; the machine was invented in Chicago, but the writer lived in New York City.
Communication was the near-instantaneous phenomenon it currently is.
The first commercial radio broadcast wasn't until 1920.
Television broadcasts would not exist until after that, though that didn't really take hold until after World War II.
So, chances are, the 31-year-old Rice was not privy to the invention of the sum-compiling device until his knowledge of it inspired him to write this play.
That would be quite possible!
As for tonight's production by the high-school thespians, it was amazing!
Mind, this play is a century-old, but all of the costumes on the stage consisted of pieces that would have been right in keeping with that time.
Lots of grays and blacks and whites, save a colorful tree in the cemetery.
But wait, what's that bit of nature doing in an industrial setting?
Well, when 'Mr. Zero' (played very well by Trey Wilner!) lost his job of 25 years to the machine, he also lost his mind, attacking his boss and killing him in front of a lot of witnesses.
To the electric chair he went!
(Yes, that device was invented in the late 1800's and first used in 1890.)
That's how he ended up in the cemetery, eventually making his way to the Elysian Fields where the tree was, and meeting Etaoin Shrdlu (a physical embodiment of a printing mistake, played by Benjamin Odom).
Eventually, his coworker, 'Daisy' (nicely portrayed by Hanna Richmond), joins him; she was the one who read the numbers to him for him to add, and after he was fired, she left the job and killed herself, hoping to find him in the afterlife.
Almost the entire time, an industrial hum and the sound of stamping feet serve as the backdrop for the action.
In other words, it was quite noisy, which I found a bit distracting.
Light show puppetry also had a part, but I admit to only catching a bit of that once, and rather by accident, as there was so much else going on.
That made it a mix of live action and puppets, just as their competition piece from 2024 - "Blood Wedding" - had been.
In the photo, next to the woman in the blue dress is Trey Wilner, looking very much grown in this grey suit and tie - wow!
That blue dress is the only bit of non-monochromatic color in the play, and that was worn by Hanna Richmond's character, 'Daisy'.
I'll be looking forward to hearing the outcome of their competition!
Break legs, y'all!
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