David Allen Jones in "The Adding Machine"
As a director, I always enjoy returning to work on scripts I’ve previously directed. All of the basic discoveries are out of the way, and I’m able to dig a little deeper. So it was with great anticipation that I approached the current production of Elmer Rice’s classic The Adding Machine at Grove Theater Center. I directed it many years ago in New Haven, then again at our theater in Orange County 16 years ago, and now in Burbank.
Kevin Cochran. Photo by Eric Schwabel
I keep coming back to this script for two key reasons. First, it’s just plain fun. If you don’t know the play, come to our production or check it out at the library — it’s well worth knowing. One of the few American expressionistic plays that has aged well, The Adding Machine is filled with imaginative scenes and unforgettable characters. As a director, how can I resist a play that includes a tour group traveling through death row, a heavenly flunky waxing nostalgic about the time Mr. Zero was a monkey, a cheerful matricidal murderer, and a brief visit to the Elysian Fields?
The second reason I keep returning to this play is its timeliness. Even though it was written in 1923, the story of a hapless white-collar drone stuck in the corporate system and then replaced by a machine after 35 years feels very relevant today. In fact, when I look back at the times I’ve chosen to do this play, I’m intrigued to realize that the first time was soon after the 1980s recession; the second time was after the Orange County bankruptcy, and now the third time follows the Great Recession.
Kate Danley, Jane Macfie, Joe Langer, David Ghilardi, Karen Kalensky, David Allen Jones and Skip Pipo
The combination of these two reasons is probably the thing I like best about this play — its mix of almost farcical comedy with a very dark outlook on the world. And this time around, I am playing the extremes even more. We’re enjoying all the slapstick comedy Rice included, but this time around heaven seems as screwed up as earth. So even though the jokes are bigger, the view of earth and mankind is darker.
So that’s why I like coming back to a play a second or even a third time. Each time it takes me on a different journey. I’ve always had a theory that good plays can be explained fairly simply. Great plays, though, defy simple explanation. Great plays take one on a journey that you can’t plan in advance. I can point my cast in a specific direction, but the play always surprises us and takes us all to someplace new. That’s what makes it so exciting for me, the cast, the designers and the audience.
The Adding Machine. GTC Burbank, 1111-b West Olive Ave, Burbank 91506. Opens July 21. Plays Fri-Sat 8 pm; Sun 3 pm. Through August 18. Tickets: $15-25. www.gtc.org. 818-528-6622.
***All The Adding Machine production photos by Dallas Ocean
Kevin Cochran co-founded Grove Theater Center with Charles Johanson in 1994. GTC has produced twelve seasons at the GTC Gem and Festival Amphitheater in Orange County, five summer seasons of Theater on the Green in Fullerton, and plays at GTC Burbank since 2001. Cochran created the GTC New Play Initiative in 2005. Plays he developed and directed for the program include Blake…da Musical (Ovation Award for best new musical); Film Chinois (Ovation Award for best new play); Bobby & Matt – Passing Notes Through Life (FringeNYC); and Eternal Equinox (Off-Broadway run at the 59E59 Theaters). He graduated from Yale University as a Scholar of the House in theater, design and circus arts.