Most of us today would be lost without
our cell phones, laptops and Palm Pilots. But back in 1923, when
playwright Elmer Rice wrote "The Adding Machine," the
machine age was still in its infancy. Nevertheless, Rice seems
to have had an excellent idea of what lay in store for humankind.
In "The Adding Machine," now at The Impact Theatre,
directed by Ron Parella, Mr. Zero (Dan McHenry) loses his job
as a number cruncher when his employer (John Menchion) replaces
him with an adding machine.
Enraged at the futility of his life – he has a nagging wife (Harriet
Parker Mann) and a surly, loveless fellow-employee, Daisy Devore
(Maia Star McCann) – Zero kills his boss and then surrenders
to police. He turns himself and his bloodstained collar over
to the policeman who appears at his door in the middle of a party
he and his wife throw for the automatons Mr. and Mrs. One, Two,
Three, Four, Five and Six. (They later become the jury at his
trial.)
Clearly "The Adding Machine" is a morality play about
dehumanization in 20th-century society. It uses untraditional,
impressionistic techniques to make its point. But it also uses
biting satire that is funny in the same way as the still-popular
1950s TV show, "The Honeymooners."
Zero is an Ed Norton-like figure pummeled by events he cannot
understand, an average Joe whose limited intelligence leaves
him ill-equipped to fathom how and why he is victimized and powerless
to change his life. But while Carney and the whole gang on "The
Honeymooners" had split-second timing, abundant energy and
a natural sense of the ridiculous, the cast and director here
make even Rice’s sparkling dialogue fall as flat as a deflated
balloon.
In fact, Rice’s writing is so superb that even with the glacial
pace and one-dimensional acting of the current production, this
reviewer (who had never before seen or read the play) turned
to her companion after 10 minutes and remarked, "I think
it’s supposed to be funny."
A shot of adrenaline might have helped the show (as would a stage
manager who knows how to work a light board, scenery that doesn’t
look like it was found on the street and a stage floor that doesn’t
seem to display the detritus of previous productions), but even
more, the play could have been helped by a director and cast
who understood that "The Adding Machine" is indeed,
as it says in the program notes, "a comedic drama."
McHenry, who is a competent actor, might have delivered a convincing
performance with better direction and better support from the
other actors; and Mann would have been much improved if she’d
deviated from her droning monotone of complaints to show other
emotions – jealousy, longing and, yes, happiness. It is the juxtaposition
of conflicting emotions within and between the characters that
should make this play funny.
As for McCann, she’s so hopelessly miscast (no amount of fake
gray can make this young and attractive actress look like a dowdy
woman approaching middle-age), there’s nothing much she could
have done to make her character stage-worthy.
It’s really a shame The Impact Theater did such a poor job with
the play. "The Adding Machine" is one of several that
Rice (a lawyer-turned-playwright) wrote in the service of liberal
causes and against oppression and prejudice – casual cruelty
("Street Scene"), poverty ("We the People")
and Nazi fascism ("Judgment Day").
Unfortunately, the questions Rice asked have not been answered,
the problems he posed not solved and the injustices he exposed
not resolved. In his lifetime, Rice’s views brought him into
conflict with the likes of Joseph McCarthy and government censors.
But he didn’t flinch. When the independence of his work with
the Federal Theatre Project was threatened, he resigned his administrative
post, and when he disagreed with some of the positions and the
control of the Theatre Guild, he founded the Playwrights’ Company
with four other playwrights – Robert Sherwood, S. N. Behrman,
Sidney Howard and Maxwell Anderson.
Surely Rice’s work deserves better treatment than is given in
this sloppy, unfocussed production.
The Impact Theatre’s production of "The
Adding Machine" plays through July 25, Thursday through
Saturday, at 8 pm, and Sunday, at 3 pm. Tickets are $15 adults,
$12 students and seniors. The Impact Theatre is located at 190
Underhill Ave. at Sterling Place in Prospect Heights. For reservations,
call (718) 390-7163.
