Axis Theatre to Stage World Premiere of THE VAST MACHINE

Axis Theatre will present the world premiere of The Vast Machine, a new play written and directed by Randy Sharp about the dilemmas facing the crew of a slave ship at sea in the Middle Passage. Performances will take place October 1- November 7 at Axis Theatre (1 Sheridan Square) in the West Village.

In writing The Vast Machine, Sharp drew inspiration from Marcus Rediker's celebrated book The Slave Ship: A Human History (Viking-Penguin, 2007), which won the 2008 George Washington Book Prize, presented by the Glider Lehrman Institute, the Starr Center at Washington College, and Mount Vernon; the 2008 James A. Rawley Prize, presented by the American Historical Association; and the 2008 Merle Curti Award, presented by the Organization of American Historians. The book has appeared in English, French, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Swedish, and Turkish editions.

Sharp found Mr. Rediker at the University of Pittsburgh, where he is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History. He has been a trusted adviser to Sharp throughout her writing and staging of the play.

Although the ocean-going element of the slave trade was outlawed internationally in 1808, human beings continued to be shipped to work in the plantations and factories of the New World. The governments of the United Kingdom and America developed a kind of police fleet called Interceptors that patrolled the Middle Passage, arresting and sometimes disposing of slave ship crews before returning the captives to the African continent.

The Vast Machine takes place on the Perisher, a Guineaman completely becalmed on a mirror-like sea and trapped under an endless gray dome. Following an unsuccessful slave insurrection, the crew is almost completely decimated by illness, alcohol and accident, and is quickly running out of food and water. The remaining five members must decide what to do with the 235 living people beneath the deck. They spy a tiny speck on the horizon line. Is it an Interceptor? A fellow slaver who may tow them to safety? A whaling ship that could spare oars and a long boat?

The Vast Machine explores questions including: Who were the crewmen that perpetrated the complex and multi-faceted crime of slavery? Who would take this work knowing what it entailed? Is there a vast machine that still grinds away today existing only because of the complacency and fear of the witness?

Performances of The Vast Machinewill take place October 8 - November 7 (see above schedule). Critics are welcome at Tuesday October 13, which will also serve as the official opening. Preview tickets are $25, regular tickets are $45 for adults; $30 for students/seniors and are available at axiscompany.org or by calling 212.807.9300

The Vast Machine is performed by Brian Barnhart, Brian Carter, George Demas, Sean Patrick Monahan and Julian Rozzell. The production will feature set design by Chad Yarborough, lighting design by David Zeffren, costume design by Karl Ruckdeschel, sound design by Steve Fontaine and dramaturgy by Marc Palmieri.

About Randy Sharp

Randy Sharp is Axis Theatre Company's founder and Artistic Director. She has been writing and directing theater for 30 years. Her plays include the Drama Desk Award-nominated Last Man Club (published by DPS), Nothing on Earth, Down There, Seven in One Blow (published by DPS and performed every December in NYC and around the country) and Hospital, a long-running serial about the interior life of a man in a coma, which is a West Village phenomenon each summer. She wrote and directed Solitary Light, a musical created with Paul Carbonara (Blondie) about the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

Sharp's directing credits include Last Man Club, Nothing on Earth, Down There, Seven in One Blow, Hospital, Edgar Oliver's East 10th Street: Self Portrait with Empty House (Fringe First Award, Edinburgh Fringe; Spoleto Festival USA 2011) and In the Park, A Glance at New York (Edinburgh Fringe & NYC), Julius Caesar and the U.S premiere of Sarah Kane's Crave, starring Deborah Harry.