Clevername Theatre's production of the 1923 play
The Adding Machine feels like a sequel of sorts to last year's production of the 1928 play
Machinal, or at least a continuation of the theme. Both plays are a little weird and dark, performed in an Expressionist style, are about the mundanity and absurdity of everyday life, and even share some cast and creative team. Where
Machinal focused on a woman trapped in societal expectations and the extremes she goes to to escape,
The Adding Machine tells the story of a man fired from his boring job of 25 years, also going to extremes to escape, only to find more of the same. Once again, Clevername has taken a hundred-year-old play, performed it in the style it was intended, and made it relevant to today.
See it at The Hive Collaborative through June 22.
