The Adding Machine: A Cyborg Morality Play – The Feast @ Seattle U (First Hill)
Zero loses their job to a machine, so they kill their boss. They are then sent on a hallucinatory journey through internetified culture, the legal system, the underworld, and the future as they struggle to understand their value.
Written one hundred years ago by Elmer Rice, The Adding Machine is an absurdist parable about automation, labor, exploitation, and the search for meaning. A century later, The Feast is reinventing this classic work in a new age of mechanical evolution as artificial intelligence encroaches on creative work. In this multimedia theatre event, both humans and AIs will write, act, direct, and design the play in real time, creating a revolutionary work of “cyborg theatre.” Can the robots help us fall in love? Feel the divine? See beauty? Defy your boss, your patriarch, your keeper, and find out.
General admission seating. Tickets are sliding-scale ($0-$84). Select desired rate during checkout.
*****
By Elmer Rice
Adapted & directed by Ryan Guzzo Purcell
Run dates: preview 9/12, opens 9/14, closing 10/6
Run time: 2 hours, with intermission
Accessible show dates: Sliding-scale tickets (including free) available for all show dates.
Venue accessibility info: Theatre & common areas are wheelchair accessible. Restrooms are multi-stall and gendered.