Samuel & Alasdair
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presented by
The New Ohio Theatre
Jan 5-21, 2012!
Samuel & Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War
Text by Marc Bovino & Joe Curnutte
Co-Conceived & Directed by Lila Neugebauer
Co-Created by the Ensemble
*Winner of 2010 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Production of A Play, Outstanding Ensemble, & Outstanding Sound Design.
In an alternate global history, the cold war was decided not by detente, not by nuclear holocaust, but by massive robot invasion. Among the survivors, a team of Russian radio hosts, warmed to a lost culture of 1950s Americana, broadcast a story of brothers’ love drawn straight from the American heartland. “Samuel & Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War” combines 1950s radio drama, vintage country music, and Soviet science for a look back in time and forward to what’s next.
The Rave Reviews
“Written by Mr. Bovino and Mr. Curnutte, and fluidly directed by Lila Neugebauer, the show doesn’t burlesque its pop culture sources but honors them. When Ms. Wright Thompson’s Anastasia sings, the music has real power. ” – New York Times, Rachel Saltz, Critic’s Pic
“This is one of the most smoothly functional theatrical metaphors you’ll have seen in a while, a great, small play about decline and denial and the subtler, unspoken bonds of devotion. Without a crumb of optimism, Samuel & Alasdair is still a spot of warmth in a cold world.”- New York Magazine, Scott Brown
“The show may feel as fragile as a vacuum tube, but it’s actually unbreakably deft- and delightful to its minutest detail… rest assured, you are safe in the hands of some confident new theatrical talents.”- Time Out NY , Helen Shaw, 4 Stars
“…pleasantly eccentric and unexpectedly poignant … the acting is dynamic” -Village Voice, Alexis Soloski
“Suspenseful, stirring, and surprising from the opening moment straight through to the end, Samuel and Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War is a uniquely theatrical, thrilling, and terribly moving show.”- nytheatre.com, Heather McAllister
“The Mad Ones are crazy, but in the best possible way… As the two stories–then and now–reach a sort of present-day collision, the tension in the theater continues to build, and there’s an earned belief that anything may in fact happen. That’s the sort of freedom that the Mad Ones earn by tackling their own type of story on their own terms, and it results in the best kind of theater: the surprising sort.”- thatsoundscool blog, Aaron Riccio
“Experimental theater collective the Mad Ones concoct an engrossing alternative universe with Samuel & Alasdair… it’s suspenseful and impeccably performed, proving that The Mad Ones are not so crazy after all.” -flavorpill, Alyssa Alpine
“Samuel & Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War takes a notoriously pleasant point in history and gives it a startling alternative ending. Writers Marc Bovino and Joe Curnutte incorporate peppy 1950s colloquialisms in their witty script-within-a-script format to truly transport the audience to another time, but not quite a simpler nor familiar one… 1950s American idealism has never been so surreal.” -new theater corp, Amanda Halkiotis
“Like Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion meets Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds turned inside out”-theatreonline.com, Lauren Wissot
