Elmer Rice, The Adding Machine

Nils Clausson (University of Regina)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1923

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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The Adding Machine

(1923), Elmer Rice’s most famous play, is one of the earliest examples of Expressionism in the American theatre. Expressionism emerged in European theatre, especially in Germany, after World War I. Representative examples include Georg Kaiser’s

Gas

(1918) and Ernst Toller’s

Mass and Man

(1920), although these plays had been anticipated by such dramas as August Strindberg’s

The Spook Sonata

(1907) and Frank Wedekind’s

Spring Awakening

(1906; composed 1890-91). The earliest examples of Expressionism in America include Eugene O’Neill’s

The Emperor Jones

(1920) and

The Hairy Ape

(1922), John Howard Lawson’s

Roger Bloomer

(1923) and

Processiona

l (1925). Although O’Neill’s two plays and Lawson’s

Roger Bloomer

preceded

The Adding Machine

, the last by only…

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3543 words

Citation: Clausson, Nils. "The Adding Machine". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 August 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34380, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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