The Play Goer: Twin Beach Players’ The Time Machine
Twin Beach Players take us on a time-traveling adventure with an adaptation of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, the father of science fiction. Wells’ oft-told tale is now 125 years old.
In Wells’ telling, “the time traveller,” is a scientist; Twin Beach Players playwright Mark Scharf features Wells himself as that main character, time-traveling scientist. Regan Garnett directs the production.
The once-futuristic story opens in 1912 as Wells, known as George in this play, is enjoying dinner and easy camaraderie with friends. Wells (Harvey Williams), Sidney (Kelly Hutchison), Matthew (Justin McCright), Dr. Byram (Frank Clever) and Editor Thompson (Ellen Di lorio) are impressive in their roles, smooth and collaborative in their timing.
Scene by scene, the play jumps through time and visit the ’50s, 60s, present day and more. In each new era, you encounter actors who embrace their character. The couple featured in the ‘50s let words and phrases such as “radioactive,” “rat us out,” “square” and “later, gator” convince you that they do, indeed, live in 1956.
The costume department was obviously kept busy dressing actors in appropriate clothing from multiple years. They succeeded in shifting from 1912 to 1968 … to 802,701.