Theater for the New City - Bond Street Theatre in The Mechanical

Theater for the New City presents:
A Bond Street Theatre creation
The Mechanical

Monty Python meets The Twilight Zone…

The Mechanical is a new play by Bond Street Theatre, best known for their creative productions with artists in Afghanistan, India and Eastern Europe. The Mechanical transplants the outcast creature from Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein” into the true story of a sensational chess-playing robot built in the late 18th century. Known as The Turk, the chess-playing automaton amazed royalty, foreshadowed computers, and duped the public with its clever design. Incorporating the company’s strong physical signature that the Village Voice called "lyrical imagery of almost aching beauty," this strange tale brings to life an age of revolutions and the conflicts between science, art and religion.

Wolfgang von Kempelen introduces "The Turk," his Automaton Chess Player to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria in "The Mechanical," written and directed by Michael McGuigan, performed by Bond Street Theatre at Theater for the New City, NYC April 23 to May 10, 2009. L-R: Anna Zastrow, Brian Foley, The Turk. Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

More information at www.bondst.org

Written and Directed by Michael McGuigan
With Brian Foley, Meghan Frank, Richard Newman, Joanna Sherman, Joshua Wynter, Anna Zastrow

Costume Design by Carla Bellisio
Lighting Design by Benjamin Tevelow
Production devised by the Ensemble
Musical selections from Beethoven and other historical sources

April 23 – May 10
Thursdays – Saturdays at 8:00 pm
Sundays at 3:00 pm
Tickets: $15

Joshua Wynter, as Frankenstein's Monster, operates "The Turk," a chess-playing automaton, in "The Mechanical" by Bond Street Theatre, written and directed by Michael McGuigan, a play that interweaves the characters of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" with the true story of The Turk, a chess-playing mechanical illusion that toured the world from 1770 to 1854. Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, Manhattan, presents the work April 23 to May 10, 2009. Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

Theater for the New City
Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director
155 First Avenue
(between 9th and 10th Streets)
New York, NY 10003
Box Office: (212) 254-1109

This project is made possible through the generous support of:
National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Foundation, Tobin Theatre Arts Fund, Barbara Barondess Foundation, Puffin Foundation, NYC-DCA Materials for the Arts, TDF Costume Collection and our dedicated donors.

Meghan Frank, as Mary Shelley, regards "The Turk," a chess-playing automaton, in "The Mechanical" by Bond Street Theatre, written and directed by Michael McGuigan, a play that interweaves the characters of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" with the true story of The Turk, a chess-playing mechanical illusion that toured the world from 1770 to 1854. Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, Manhattan, presents the work April 23 to May 10, 2009. Photo by Nadia Kitirath.