In her 1938 sci-fi novella “Anthem,” Ayn Rand envisioned a groupthink society in which individualism has been forcefully eradicated.
“We are nothing, mankind is all,” a member of this collectivist nightmare intones in the book’s new stage adaptation.
Given our current narcissistic, selfie-obsessed world, some might argue that Rand’s predictions were off the mark. Still, her apocalyptic, dystopian vision should make for interesting theater, right?
Wrong again.
Adapted by Jeff Britting — curator of the Ayn Rand Institute’s archives — and directed by Ann Ciccolella, this “Anthem” is one turgid show.
Our hero is Equality 7-2521 — in the distant future, everybody is named like an old telephone number. Despite his bright intellect, the omnipotent Council of Vocation has assigned him a job as a street sweeper. But Equality is driven by unstoppable scientific curiosity and, after stumbling onto an old tunnel dating back to “the Unmentionable Times,” he starts conducting experiments in secret.
Eventually, he rediscovers electricity, because he’s that kind of Randian genius.
Matthew Lieff Christian gives Equality a mix of youthful naiveté and fanatic intensity, but there’s only so much the actor can do, saddled as he is with a series of pontificating soliloquies.
Equality isn’t much softened by falling in forbidden love with Liberty 5-3000 (Sofia Lauwers), a blond milk-maid type with no discernible personality. The man is on a mission.
Britting strayed from the book by making up new characters and plot points, though few register — even if Tina Johnson manages moments of poignancy as the older Democracy 2-5799.
The production can be starkly stylish, in a neo-industrial way, and lighting designer Jason Amato bathes the cast in impressionistic shadows, even if the ambient murk can make it hard to tell what’s going on.
After Equality presents his lightbulb moment — literally — to the World Council of Scholars, he’s immediately rebuffed.
“Should it be what they claim of it, then it would bring ruin to the Department of Candles,” the so-called scientists say in the play’s single stab at humor.
The biggest joke is elsewhere: This is a show that hails the merits of the individual, yet it features generic mouthpieces rather than genuine characters.