[Photo by STEVE DUFALA]
Originally presented as a workshop performance at the 2002 Philly Fringe, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines was a runaway hit with standing-room only houses and an extended run. Newly reimagined and performed by original co-creators Gabriel Quinn Bauriedel and Geoff Sobelle, of Pig Iron Theatre Company, with rainpan 43 co-founder Trey Lyford, the play is a physical and comic send-up of America’s obsession with technology and security.
Through a unique blend of clowning and engineering, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines reveals the claustrophobic bunker of three paranoid brothers so fixated on protecting themselves from the outside world that they themselves become the objects of suspicion.
In an attempt to simplify their lives, they bury themselves in a cacophonous landslide of ingenious — if poorly made — machines. At the heart of the play are the ridiculously complex machines (created by Philly artists Steven Dufala and Billy Blaise Dufala, known for their 2005 Toilet Tricycle Race), based on cartoonist Rube Goldberg‘s vision of technology and the equation: the most amount of effort to achieve the least amount of gain.
machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines from May 31st through June 17th at the Alter(ed) Garage at 818 Alter Street in South Philadelphia. Tickets are $20 to $25 and are available by calling (215) 531-3185 or visiting www.machinesmachinesmachines.com.