Results tagged “machines”

Life seemed so much simpler back in the days of Don Draper. You could get back home after a long day in the office on the commuter train, which according to Mad Men was never over-crowded, and highly encouraged relaxation methods like smoking cigarettes and reading the evening paper. Or you could just drive drunk back to Ossining. Choose your own adventure! Either way, the romanticized Grand Central of yesteryear is a far cry from the nightmarish reality of today.

If Terminator Salvation's bleak vision of humanity's enslavement by machines has you down, HERE Arts Center is the place to go for an antidote to Hollywood blockbuster dystopia. The machines that fill the stage in machines machines machines machines machines machines machines (which we'll henceforth refer to as "machines") are as inextricably involved in day-to-day life as the computer you're using to read this, but they're not about to become "self-aware" any time soon. They're not making existence any easier either, but that's what makes "machines" so damn entertaining: A man pouring a glass of orange juice doesn't make for compelling theater, but three men using an elaborate system of pulleys and counterweights to (somewhat successfully) pour juice makes for daffy, steampunk slapstick.