Heddatron
by Elizabeth Meriwether
February 11 - April 24, 2011
Sideshow Theatre Company
Steppenwolf Theatre
scenic designer Lisi Stoessel
costume designer David Hyman
lighting designer Jordan Kardasz
sound designer Christopher M. Laporte
projections designer Michael Fernandez
"I want to be your love-borg."
It all starts with a book falling from the sky. Suddenly Jane Gordon, a very depressed and very pregnant Michigan housewife, finds herself kidnapped by a clan of renegade sentient robots and whisked away to the jungles of South America where she is forced to perform the title role in a mechanical version of Hedda Gabler. As a documentarian searches for the truth about Jane’s abduction and Jane’s family mounts a search party, her 10-year-old daughter Nugget discovers a past where a tormented Henrik Ibsen squeezes out each tortured word of his greatest masterpiece. Dark and savagely funny, Heddatron “achieves true, and truly original, theatrical transcendence” (Ben Brantley, New York Times) in a bizarre and strangely familiar world of reality TV and rocket launchers where everyone, metal or otherwise, just wants to feel a little bit human.
Winner of 2011 Joseph Jefferson Award for artistic specialization
Press
"A hugely entertaining new fever-dream of a show... exploding with laughter. This hip-and-quirky show just keeps surprising."
Chicago Tribune
"Hilarious... truly phenomenal!"
Chicago Sun-Times
"Sideshow offers what might be the ideal production of this material, with remarkably sophisticated robot actors matching up to a thoroughly grounded performance… one of the most satisfying reveals you’ll see all year."
Time Out Chicago
"As successful as one can imagine a staging of Heddatron to be, with exuberant performances, gorgeous technical theater... it's impossible not to be charmed."
New City
"Weird and wonderful, high visual and highly physical."
WBEZ
"A production that can rival the best of New York Off-Broadway."
From the Ledge
"Ambitious, funny, and surprisingly touching."
Flavorpill
★★★★ (out of 4)
"Startlingly profound. Perfectly calibrated for maximum wonderment!"
Chicago Theater Beat
"Outstanding... deadly hilarious!"
Make It Better Magazine
★★★★ (out of 4)
"Dynamically creative... a hilarious spectacle!"
Chicago Stage Style
"All sorts of awesome."
Chicago Theatre Addict
