The Actors' Gang Will Present THE ADDING MACHINE This Spring

The Actors' Gang will present its production of the great American play, The Adding Machine, Elmer Rice's visionary classic from 1923 that warns of and satirizes the future we find ourselves currently living in.  It is directed by Cihan Sahin, who has performed in twelve Actors' Gang productions as well as designed most Actors' Gang shows since 2016.

The Adding Machine is performed from March 5 to April 18 on Thursdays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays March 5, 8, 29 and April 12 at 2:00 PM.  For tickets and information, please visit theactorsgang.com.

A touchstone of American expressionism, The Adding Machine tells the story of the life, death and bizarre afterlife of a colorless bookkeeper, Mr. Zero. The tragic journey of Elmer Rice's enigmatic anti-hero becomes a razor-sharp critique of the society that has made him.  

Ready to ask for a raise on the day of his 25th year of employment at his job, Zero's employer appears to notify him that adding machines are to be installed -- machines “so simple that they can be operated by high school girls” -- and informs him gently but firmly that his services are no longer required.  

For one mad moment all the figures he has ever added whirl madly in Zero's brain and when he is  again aware of the world, he has stabbed his employer through the heart with a bill file.

Sentenced -- and before his execution -- Mr. Zero is put on display for sightseers to marvel at -- the “North American Murderer.” But death isn't the end. Mr. Zero meanders through the afterlife (an Elysian Fields), until a worse fate is hoisted upon him. He enters the next life only to confront the same issues and, judged to be of minimal use in heaven, is sent back to Earth where he will become an even sadder cipher. He is to operate a computerized machine with his big toe that records the output of oppressed miners.

Tim Robbins, The Actors' Gang Artistic Director said, “A century after Rice wrote The Adding Machine – in which workers were replaced by machines and industrial automation -- workers are now being faced with being replaced the AI, which has become the great question of our era for workers and humanity.  And with this one play, Elmer Rice changed the theatre, giving it a voice for the consciousness of an era, as well as introducing a unique theatrical form -- bringing expressionism from European theater to the American stage.”

Director Cihan Sahin said, “This production of The Adding Machine came about from a trip to the Sphere in Las Vegas and watching an entertainment created by AI -- an experience of watching an entertainment that expected the audience to consume a constant stream of information within seconds as AI threw up quick images that would cross fade and change on the screen.  I walked out feeling manipulated and angry because human creators were missing.   In the recent Gang production of Arrest the Clowns, I wrote a play about how manipulating and mis-informed AI is.  Then Tim Robbins talked about how AI cannot replace humans in the making of theatre – as machines did not replace theatre a hundred years ago at the time of The Adding Machine.” 

The Adding Machine is about people literally being ground into numbers – as Mr. Zero is to be replaced by an adding machine.  It shocked the audience – experiencing the inner fears and thoughts of a people being replaced – and 100 years later we are watching AI and robots replacing their replacements.

Sahin said, “I was always fascinated by the myth of Sisyphus – endlessly pushing the rock up the mountain.  Rice was brilliant --  even in the afterlife Mr. Zero keeps doing the same thing over and over again – expecting a different result.  To be human is bearing the repetition of failure.”

Sahin concluded, “Very much like expressionist paintings – instead of focusing on the external it makes our imagination go deep our heart and mind … the characters live in their trauma.  Mr. Zero is in trauma – the last straw is that he learns he is being replaced by a machine that a high school student can operate.  The blood rushes into his brain -- and he kills his boss.”

Theatrical expressionism emerged in early 20th-century Germany (c. 1910–1925). Rather than depicting reality, it sought to portray of the emotional experience of the inner psychological state of a character, often reflecting a world that is distorted, nightmarish, or fragmented.  The Adding Machine begins with a ten minute stream of consciousness monologue in which Mrs. Zero expresses her dreams, desires, anger and frustrations of her everyday life on Mr. Zero.