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The New Group Opens ‘The Adding Machine’ in Lean New Adaptation

Bradshaw’s revision sharpens Rice’s satire about workers pushed aside by machines.

Overview

  • The New Group’s revival at the Theater at St. Clement’s is the first play in the company’s newly acquired home.
  • Scott Elliott directs a cast of four led by Jennifer Tilly, who opens with a long monologue, alongside Daphne Rubin-Vega, Sarita Choudhury, and Michael Cyril Creighton.
  • Thomas Bradshaw’s revision trims the 1923 script, adds a narrator, and keeps much of Elmer L. Rice’s original language.
  • Derek McLane’s wall of identical vintage objects and Jeff Croiter’s stark lighting build an expressionist, machine-like world.
  • Early reviews highlight the streamlined concept and connect its focus on replaceable workers to current anxieties about artificial intelligence.