BOND STREET THEATRE
  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • At a Glance
    • Impact
    • History
    • Board
    • Supporters
    • Staff
  • what we do
    • Why Theatre?
    • How We Work
    • International Projects
    • Performances >
      • Beyond the Mirror
      • Bhopal
      • Romeo and Juliet
      • The Mechanical
      • Cozmic Jazz
      • WERK
    • Lectures / Workshops
    • Young Audiences
    • Stilt Band
  • Where We Work
    • Map
    • Afghanistan
    • South Sudan
    • Myanmar (Burma)
    • Russia
    • Malaysia
    • Azerbaijan
    • Haiti
    • Guatemala
    • United States
    • India
    • Balkan Projects >
      • Performing Artists for Balkan Peace
    • Other Projects - Highlights
  • Media
    • Latest News
    • Blog: BST on the Road
    • Newsletters
    • Press
    • Photo Gallery
    • Video Gallery
  • Get Involved
    • Donate
    • Intern/Volunteer
    • Host an Event
    • Shop
    • Contact Us
  • Donate
  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • At a Glance
    • Impact
    • History
    • Board
    • Supporters
    • Staff
  • what we do
    • Why Theatre?
    • How We Work
    • International Projects
    • Performances >
      • Beyond the Mirror
      • Bhopal
      • Romeo and Juliet
      • The Mechanical
      • Cozmic Jazz
      • WERK
    • Lectures / Workshops
    • Young Audiences
    • Stilt Band
  • Where We Work
    • Map
    • Afghanistan
    • South Sudan
    • Myanmar (Burma)
    • Russia
    • Malaysia
    • Azerbaijan
    • Haiti
    • Guatemala
    • United States
    • India
    • Balkan Projects >
      • Performing Artists for Balkan Peace
    • Other Projects - Highlights
  • Media
    • Latest News
    • Blog: BST on the Road
    • Newsletters
    • Press
    • Photo Gallery
    • Video Gallery
  • Get Involved
    • Donate
    • Intern/Volunteer
    • Host an Event
    • Shop
    • Contact Us
  • Donate
What We Do > Performances > The Mechanical

The Mechanical

"Bond Street Theatre has a fascinating story to tell, a stunning visual theatrical vocabulary, and skilled performers to pull both off.   Just like the inventor's assistant concealed inside a chess-playing robot, 'The Mechanical' beats with a human heart and soul."
- Mary Carole McCauley, Baltimore Sun
In 1770, Wolfgang von Kempelen, court science adviser to Austria-Hungarian Empress Maria Theresa, created a mechanical man, fashioned from wood and powered by clockwork, with the ability to play chess with a human opponent. Luminaries such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Benjamin Franklin and Edgar Allen Poe challenged the thinking machine and attempted to understand its closely guarded mechanics—which were in fact powered by an ingeniously secreted human player. Inventor and showman Johann Maelzel continued to tour the automaton until his death in 1838 aboard the steamship Otis, sailing out of Havana. We know this much is true.

But what if the captain of the Otis is the same captain who, twenty years earlier, rescued a half dead Victor Frankenstein from the Artic ice, where Mary Shelley begins her tale? And what if, via spectral machinations and the meddling of zanies, Frankenstein’s creature is transported from the caves of Geneva to the palaces of Vienna and taken in by von Kempelen, to inhabit the secret cabinet of the automaton and use his man-made wits to beat his human opponents as a “thinking machine” ? Would the creature find joy and satisfaction in out-witting the best minds of the human society that previously rejected him, or rebel against the implied superiority of manufactured, mechanical life?
"The scope of vision for the play is broad and dazzling. The enchanting physicality of the choreographed transitions, the skillful use of puppets and flowing scenic elements, and the surprise introduction of pop-up books with miniatures of set pieces—it all combines into a uniquely exciting and charming journey."
- Johnna Adams, Off-Off-Online

Donors

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
  • The Tobin Theatre Arts Foundation

Performances

2008
  • June 12–14-: 3 performances following 2 week development residency at the North American Cultural Laboratory (NACL) in Highland Lake, NY
2009
  • March 28-April 5: Baltimore Theater Project,  Baltimore, Maryland (8 performances)
  • April 23- May 10: Theater for the New City,  New York City, NY (12 performances)

The Production

Featuring: Brian Foley, Meghan Frank, Richard Newman, Joanna Sherman, Joshua Wynter & Anna Zastrow

Written and Directed by Michael McGuigan
Costume Design by Carla Bellisio 
Lighting Design by Benjamin Tevelow
Production devised by the Ensemble
Musical selections from Beethoven and other historical sources
Picture
"The staging is never less than compelling. McGuigan knows his way around a theatre. He utilizes various styles and techniques (commedia dell'arte, melodrama, mask, puppetry) to tell his story. He creates dynamic stage pictures and moves his characters around the stage with ease and fluidity." 
- Robert Weinstein, NYTheatre.com

Who we are

At a Glance
Impact
History

Board
Supporters
Staff


What we do

Why Theatre?
How We Work
International Projects
Performances
Lectures / Workshops
Young Audiences
Stilt Band

Where we work

Afghanistan
Myanmar (Burma)
Malaysia
Azerbaijan
Haiti
Guatemala
United States
India
Balkan Projects
Other Projects - Highlights

media

Latest News
Newsletters
Press
Photo Gallery
Video Gallery

Get involved

Donate
Intern/Volunteer
Host An Event
Shop
Contact Us
Bond Street Theatre is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation and an NGO in association with the UN-DPI.
Bond Street Theatre
2 Bond Street, New York, New York
​10012, USA

info@bondst.org
(212) 254-4614