A Night at Oddfellows

Last night, my hubby and I scooted up to Oddfellows to watch a young friend in the Teen Rep production of RUR.

Not having done my homework, I had no idea what to expect. The play opens in the corporate office of a robot factory, more quaint than futuristic, as the main characters meet. The sweet ingenue, with her idealistic passion to save the robots from soulless labor, clashes with (and then crushes on) the crusty but brilliant older man-in-charge. We could be at My Fair Lady, right? Except here, technology is the bad guy, instead of the British class system.

Ok, I'll be honest. For the first scene, I was thinking, we're only five minutes in and you can already see where this is going. Helena -- that's the girl -- worries that there must be something wrong with creating machines to do all our work for us, while Domin -- that's the boss -- waxes insanely about how the machines will free us to be ourselves, that we will soon be living in paradise. Right away, you know he's nuts and the theme is "utopia-gone-bad." I remember thinking it was sort of propaganda-ish to make these texting teens do this stuff.

Then I glanced at the program in the dark. This play was written in 1920. Is that a typo? Turns out the play is not trite, it's prophetic - while the actors are talking about whether robots can fear death at the prospect of dissection, I'm trying to figure out how this play could have been written before science fiction was even a genre. It's not just the robots that spook me, it's the idea that our enthusiasm for corporations leads to paving paradise to put up a parking lot.

Isn't that a Walmart generation question?

Honestly, I'm not sure any of this makes me like the play any more, but now I understand why Oddfellows is producing it. This is what they do best with teenagers, and these actors are deeply engaged in the material.

Rachel Calter gives an excellent performance as Helena, and its hard to take your eyes off her as she wrestles with her conscience in deciding whether to resist or tolerate the new era of robots. There's a supporting cast of amiable company men who help run the factory, and the evident fondness between them and Helena makes you feel that somehow, humanity will figure out how to solve this dilemma. Chris Cote, as Domin, has a much less likable role to play as his believable charisma leads humanity to the brink of extinction.

Without giving too much away, I'll mention that a plot twist allows the actors to play robot versions of their human selves, and here, we see such a change in carriage, in demenor and response, that I had a new level of appreciation for the talent. Chris and Rachel are so simply appealing and natural as robots, where their humans were layered with complicated motivations and deceptions, that the play ends on a note of optimism. Maybe, just maybe, Renewal will be our lot, and not Despair.

Challenging theater indeed.

My point is this: if you are the type of person who drives to Hartford or New Haven to see complicated plays, or who keeps an eye out for interesting productions up at Wesleyan, then you need to get yourself over to Oddfellows for the final performance of RUR this evening at 7:30. The robots are waiting....