The Water Engine at Spooky Action Theater

The Water Engine

Spooky Action Theater
1810 16th St NW Washington

Chicago, 1934, at the time of the great Century of Progress Exhibition. An independent inventor, Charles Lang, has built an engine that runs solely on water. Big Business gets wind of the invention and is out to steal it or suppress it. Lang and his sister Rita are brutally murdered for refusing to divulge the location of the engine or the plans. The plans secretly end up in the hands of Lang’s young friend Bernie Wallace, a boy with a keen interest in technology and great faith and hope for the future.

Thru - Mar 11, 2012

Thursdays: 7:30pm

Fridays: 7:30pm

Saturdays: 7:30pm

Sundays: 2:00pm

Show Type: Drama

Box Office: 301-920-1414

Running Time: 1 hour 30 mins with no intermission

www.spookyaction.org

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The Water Engine Reviews

Average Rating based on 4 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Washington Post - Not Recommended

"... The sturdy center and human face at the center of the phantasmagoria is Ian LeValley, whose intensely hopeful and haunted Lang is exactly right for a paranoid thriller. LeValley is a smart, powerful actor who has been convincing lately as period geniuses (he’s played Darwin twice, in vastly different projects). Here he delivers a pressurized turn, but he can’t save the show; the huff-and-puff storytelling creates too many sputters. Like water in an engine."

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- Nelson Pressley

Washington City Paper - Somewhat Recommended

"... Originally written in 1977 as a radio play, The Water Engine lacks the clipped, sardonic dialogue familiar to fans of Mamet. At Spooky Action Theater, what the show does provide is a platform for director Richard Henrich to play with how audiences engage with a theatrical production. At the very least, the effect is compelling. With a set by Vicki Davis and lights by Colin Dieck, Henrich creates two distinct universes—two layers of reality—with which the audience must connect. One, a radio studio, is closer to our world. The other is the visual manifestation of the narrative told by the radio station's voice actors. And then there's a "comprehensive 'third reality,'" to quote Henrich quoting Mamet, created in the mind of the audience as it merges the first two."

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- Sophia Bushong

MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended

"... The performances are first-rate. Ian LeValley (Lang) gives a gut-wrenching performance as the inventor, and as the show progresses and as he is being manipulated by others, the audience feels sympathy for him. His chemistry with Mr. Oberman (Scott Sedar) and Gross (Chuck Young) – the two con men – is really convincing, without it becoming too melodramatic. Sedar and Young are evil incarnate, sinister, and slimy, especially when they threaten Lang with harming his family."

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- Elliot Lanes

DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended

The Water Engine is a simple but devastatingly pessimistic appraisal of the American Dream that Mamet originally wrote for the radio in 1977. Paranoia reigns in what’s often a taut, noirish thriller, as Lang realizes his predicament and criss-crosses the city from Bughouse Square to the World’s Fair to the Lincoln Park Zoo trying to stay a step ahead of his enemies.

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- Roy Maurer

The Water Engine at Spooky Action Theater

The Water Engine

The Water Engine Reviews

Washington Post - Not Recommended

Washington City Paper - Somewhat Recommended

MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended

DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended

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