A Double Bill of Murder and Alienation in the Face of New Technology: Machinal and A Number

Death and devious duplication make for an exciting evening of theater

Comments (0) By Olivia Flores Alvarez Thursday, Feb 11 2010

The current Main Street Theater production has an especially long name: A Double Bill of Murder and Alienation in the Face of New Technology: Machinal and A Number. The murder half of the evening is fulfilled with Machinal, which playwright Sophie Treadwell based on the 1927 trial and eventual execution of stenographer Ruth Snyder, who was accused of killing her husband. Treadwell reimagines the circumstances that could have driven Snyder to murder.

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The alienation half of the night is covered with Caryl Churchill's A Number, a one-act play making its Houston premiere. In A Number, a man has three sons - his wife gave birth to one, another was created in a lab and a third is a clone of the clone (the man doesn't even know about this one). Churchill's play examines the age-old dynamics of father-son relationships and the newer issue of human cloning. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. 2540 Times Boulevard. For information, call 713-524-6706 or visit www.mainstreettheater.com. $10 to $36.
Thursdays-Sundays. Starts: Feb. 11. Continues through Feb. 14, 2010