It was cold. There was no heat. Promises of heat were made, but it was still cold. In the opening darkness I reached for my scarf and wrapped it around my neck. In the opening darkness I could not tell if I wanted my scarf only for warmth or also for protection against an as yet unnamed danger.
Whatever else is happening in the city, in the country, in the world, I was in a basement on Thursday night. A rather large basement, a rather analog basement, with an old-timeyish feeling that harkened back to the London raids rather than poodle skirts and great big day-long suckers, even though more literal reference was made to the latter style of nostalgia that the former.
Samuel & Alasdair and their Personal History of the Robot Wars is about the danger of darkness, the power of a silent rotary phone, light that barely illuminates, and the devastation of everything, even the ever resilient human spirit. The play shows us the broadcasting of a radio drama that relates the fall of the US to some unknown robot devastation that may in fact be coming our way. It was chilling, I actually shivered.
The New Ohio is different from the old Ohio. It’s in a basement and when I first walked in to the lobby I didn’t like it, it felt institutional, like I was just in the basement of some big building, which I was. When I took my seat I thought how I didn’t like the space at all. And then the show started. More than being a play staged on the stage of the New Ohio, it is a play that takes place on the stage at the New Ohio, it’s like this is exactly where the play is set. So much so that, by evening’s end, I felt very strongly that I was in a basement with the weight of the entire city on top of us, and was suddenly afraid of what could be happening out there.
Samuel & Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot Wars
A production by the Mad Ones at The New Ohio
154 Christopher St
January 5 - 21, 2012
TICKETS
Libby Emmons is a guest blogger and NYTR published playwright, for more info on Libby Emmons
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