ADDING MACHINE (Finborough Theatre)**

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIFH_mlEJ0o

Link with subtitles: https://www.scenesaver.co.uk/production/adding-machine-a-musical-subtitled/

Available until:

Trigger warnings: Racism, Capital punishment, suicide

The Finborough Theatre has put on some brilliant productions over the years and one thing I love about them is that they’re not afraid to take risks.

But one downside of taking risks is that every so often, a risk won’t pay off – and this production didn’t pay off for me. If you look on google, there are numerous publications proclaiming it as a four-star musical and they’re more likely to be right than me. But I’m not going to pretend I liked and understood it when I didn’t.

Adding Machine is described as a musical. It feels more like an opera to me, but that wouldn’t have been a problem in itself. I like opera. And musicals too. Joshua Schmidt’s score is inspired by opera, among other styles, and band members Ben Ferguson, Tristan Butler and Hamish Brown perform well, but there are few songs that really caught my attention or my emotions in any way. There was one quite early on which reminded me of a foxtrot, but apart from that, I didn’t really find the music enjoyable.

Jason Loewith’s libretto, which is based on Elmer Rice’s play Adding Machine, tells the story of Mr Zero. He has been doing the same mathematical job for twenty-five years. Then his boss decides to replace him with an adding machine, which will do the job a lot more quickly and make a lot fewer mistakes. Mr Zero has to decide what to do with the rest of his life.

It’s okay as far as it goes, but the story goes in strange directions that didn’t seem to make a discernible point and the characters barely existed – they did things but didn’t seem to be real people. I thought there would be some interesting and difficult ideas to wrestle with and there is one thing that happens in the play which I’m particularly against, but I don’t think Adding Machine really has anything new to say about it.

Joseph Alessi (Mr Zero) can certainly sing and portray emotion, but he wasn’t able to turn Mr Zero, the central character, into someone likeable and sympathetic. Kate Milner-Evans’ Mrs Zero explodes with emotion in a way that is very effective the first couple of times but soon became old – though she definitely has a remarkable voice. James Dinsmore played The Boss, among other roles, but while he was slightly patronising, it’s not enough to justify the way Mr Zero treats him.

Only Joanna Kirkland, as Daisy, gives us a character I was actually able to like. She’s lovely, but her taste in men is rather difficult to believe. Her way of dealing with her attraction is a genuine moment of sadness.

Director Josh Seymour has some interesting ideas, but it wasn’t enough to secure my interest in the story – though I’m sure and I genuinely hope it was enjoyed by other people.  Frankie Bradshaw makes some inventive choices with the set, though I think the stage could have done with being slightly bigger with slightly more space between it and the audience – though the Finborough Theatre is already small and this would have cut down the number of seats even further. But I am impressed by the way the theatre was transformed for this production – I know the theatre, but I barely recognised it.

It’s not terrible at all – the other reviews suggest it’s actually very good. But it wasn’t for me.