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Theater review by Raven Snook
Elmer Rice's expressionist satire The Adding Machine, written a little over a century ago, is the disturbingly relevant tale of an unhappily married middle-aged bookkeeper named Mr. Zero (Daphne Rubin-Vega), the quintessential cog in the capitalist machine, who murders his boss after being replaced by a calculator. But even in the afterlife, post-execution, he remains a captive of a system meant to keep the common man down; he’s too scared to enjoy liberty or happiness with his also-deceased former coworker Daisy (Sarita Choudhury). The Adding Machine is at once a bleakly hilarious comedy and a devastatingly surreal tragedy, and with AI posing an existential threat to so many workers, it's clear why director Scott Elliott is mounting it. But little about the production adds up.
RELATED: Buy tickets to The Adding Machine
Despite a valiant effort, Rubin-Vega—in unconvincing drag—is less than Mr. Zero. Perhaps Elliott thought casting a Latina woman would expand the notion of the persecuted everyman, but it's at odds with the play's depiction of white male fragility. (Zero loves a slur!) As Mr. Zero's shrewish wife, Jennifer Tilly henpecks without humor; her lengthy opening monologue is particularly painful. Revisions by playwright Thomas Bradshaw add an unnecessary narrator (Michael Cyril Creighton) and cull the cast to four, forcing Creighton to play more than a dozen supporting parts, a frequently confusing and only intermittently amusing conceit. Only Choudhury manages to successfully navigate the play's tricky tone, transforming from a dowdy and depressed drone into a luminous free spirit.
At least this confounding slog of a production looks great at the New Group's new home at the Theater at St. Clement's. Scenic designer Derek McLane's infinite back wall of shelves feels appropriately like a prison, and Jeff Croiter's lighting design smartly employs moments of jolting brightness amid the dark. But unfortunately, given the talent involved, this Adding Machine falls short of the sum of its parts.
The Adding Machine. Theater at St. Clement's (Off Broadway). By Elmer L. Rice with revisions by Thomas Bradshaw. Directed by Scott Elliott. With Daphne Rubin-Vega, Michael Cyril Creighton, Sarita Choudhury, Jennifer Tilly. Running time: 2hrs 15mins. One intermission. Through May 17.
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