I studied “The Adding Machine” in a theatre history course in college, but I’ve never before seen a production. Important as an example of the theatrical style known as American Expressionism, it was Elmer Rice’s passionate cry of protest against the depersonalization of the Industrial Revolution, the dehumanizing of the workplace. The First World War had industrialized death, automation was rapidly replacing the unique person, and in this 1923 play Rice argues (in part) that death may in fact be more livable than a mechanized life.

While it is most striking in its bold theatrical style, its presentation, the themes and arguments, are distressingly contemporary. The substitution of technology for machinery in our time leaves humanity in exactly the same place in terms of trying to find a meaningful existence, a singular identity within a corporate society that depersonalizes the individual. We spend hours and years at routine work which is grindingly insignificant. The plight of Mr. Zero feels so representative of a common condition that he seems less an example than an avatar, and his journey through eternity provokes a sympathy not simply for his fate, but for ours.       

It is interesting that New Century Theatre Company chose this relatively obscure play as their first production, applying their impressive acting talent under John Langs’s assured direction. This script may most frequently reside in dusty dramatic archives, but this production was anything but a museum piece. Powerful, beautifully accomplished and passionately invested by the actors, it was fascinating and moving. It serves notice that Seattle's newest professional theater company intends to deliver adventurous and meaningful theater of the highest quality.

In the stunning opening moments of the play we see the ashen-faced, black-lipped occupants of the accounting office, moving like the precise gears of a terrible machine, each another cipher in some endless calculation. Mr. Zero is just another desk, another tablet recording numbers. His assistant reads off the numbers from printed receipts and he totals the columns in front of him. Random, endless numbers from every voice in the room. Repetitive motion in unison, nothing to distinguish one part from another. The premise of the play is established in that opening premises.

The hollow face of Mr. Zero, wonderfully played by Paul Morgan Stetler, is like the face of a zombie, one of the living dead, and when he leaves the office to return home it is only to sit at the table eating some bland mush while his haranguing wife, Mrs. Zero, chatters on like some demented squakbox. That opening monologue by the wife, detailing everything wrong with everyone and everything in their lives, was brilliantly played by Amy Thone. We understand completely that there will be no comfort, no companionship, no grace from his married partner. 

To find that, Mr. Zero will have to die, and in the Elysian Fields re-unite with his counting assistant, Daisy, now vitalized and intimate in a way that Mr. Zero has never known. All he had to do was die, in this case by execution, after killing his boss for firing him after 25 years of his faithful, pointless service. A mechanical adding machine can do his work more cheaply and without the possibility of human error. Yet even in eternity he will discover there is a routine, an endless repetition, no real resolution or hope of ultimate destination. 

This production is truly an ensemble piece and the cast is uniformly disciplined and effective. Jennifer Lee Taylor drew a nice contrast between the unknown woman who had been sitting for years beside Mr. Zero and Daisy, the same woman, only now a tender and compassionate woman in the afterlife. MJ Sieber was particularly strong as Lt. Charles and Joe McCarthy had just the right brittle, hard-edged practicality as the Boss. 

With minimal physical production, primarily a black stage lit by harsh, white light, simple tables and chairs, and some flats dressed in tattered slips of paper, some glittery, red trees in the Elysian Fields (Jennifer Zeyl) the visual character of this show was exactly the expression needed. Pete Rush's costumes were equally appropriate.

I'm thrilled to have the chance to see this uncommonly done play in such an accomplished production, but please don't think this is just some theatrical arcana, a curiosity simply by its rarity. This was a vital, muscular, beautifully crafted piece of drama using the uniquely powerful elements of live performance to express deep emotions and substantial ideas. With the selection and quality of “The Adding Machine” New Century Theatre has announced itself as a major new voice on the Seattle stage. 

PICTURED ABOVE: Amy Thone & Paul Morgan Stetler as Mr. & Mrs. Zero
PHOTO: Chris Bennion