The Machine Stops at The Mark O'Donnell Theater at the Entertainment Community Fund Arts Center

Puppetry, Multi-Media, and Sci-Fi Collide in Theatrical Adaptation of E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops”

In an imagined future where everyone lives alone in identical, underground cells, having all their needs provided for by a multi-functional, omnipresent machine, people have abandoned public gathering and physical touch in favor of communicating with each other via The Machine’s video interface system. When Vashti's son Kuno calls her from his cell on the other side of the world, her life is turned upside-down when he asks to meet in person to tell her something face to face, "not through The Machine."

Through a combination of live acting, puppetry and video projections, this production uses expressive theatricality to vividly bring Forster’s futuristic allegory to life on stage.