Theatre Review of Ada and the Engine

Read a detailed theatre review of Ada and the Engine, a play written by Lauren Gunderson, which revolves around the friendship of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage, the early 19th century inventor of the computer. The play deals with important themes and schematic oppositions including love and romance vs. logic, vision vs. convention, and passion vs. propriety. The direction, production, and cast of the play have been successful in bringing the feminist myth of triumph and transcendence to life.

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Theatre review of Ada and the Engine
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1THEATRE REVIEW OF ADA AND THE ENGINE
The “Ada and the Engine”, is a play written by a famous playwright of the United
States, Lauren Gunderson. It was first produced in the 2019 studio of the “Theatre
Unleashed”. She has almost 20 plays produced only in the age of 37. The most important
theme that she deals with in his plays is about the female figures prevalent in history, science
and literature. This play of hers is also based on a similar theme. The play focusses on the
friendship of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage, the early !9th century inventor of the
computer.
The storyline of the play revolves around the only legitimate child of the renowned
poet of the Romantic Age, Lord Byron, Ada Byron Lovelace. Her character was that of a
historical figure, who tried to merge the scientific exploration with literary humanism.
Charles Babbage was a soul mate of Ada Lovelace and her legacy is based on the voluminous
notes she wrote in order to translate the lectures of Charles Babbage. His lectures were all
about the Analytic Machine, which were considered as the precursor of the modern computer.
It is from this historical fact and other source materials that Gunderson constructs her famous
feminist fable that turned to be extremely pleasing to the audiences. Her story is all about a
fascinating young woman who was suffering with ill health. She finds her soul mate but is
prevented from marrying him because of the social constructs. Yet she still finds a way to
express her originality in order to change her own future in the process. The play deals with
the most important themes and schematic oppositions which include love and romance vs.
logic, vision vs. convention and passion vs. propriety.
There is a little relation to the historical myth. However, there has been many
discussions about the originality of Ada as a math genius and whether she deserved the
amount of attention if she did not happen to be Lord Byron’s daughter. The play has been

2THEATRE REVIEW OF ADA AND THE ENGINE
successfully directed by Heidi Powers as she boosted and strengthened the feminist origin of
the story. Alex Knox was seen to be playing the role of Charles Babbage in the play, who was
a tall well-built and robust man of young age with gray streaked rock star hair. Gregory
Crafts, the founding member of the Theatre Unleashed was cast for the role of Ada
Lovelace’s would-be-husband. His figure was supposedly more tall that Alex Knox and was a
towering figure over the character of Ada which was played by Jessie Sherman. The
character of Sherman was of a girl who refused to fit into the square holes that her mother
Anabella (played by Denise Nicholson) was trying to force her into. Jessie Sherman has a
wonderful quality. She could give rise to a bountiful wit born out of the boredom of her
character with convention and the desire for social stimulation. Sherman also was able to
radiate a winning consciousness of the odds piled against a penniless young woman, with a
discreditable lineage who nevertheless strongly believed in her own unique destiny. The cast
of the theatre is uniformly strong and Mr. Knox is arguable more handsome than the old
photos of Charles Babbage, his real life counterpart. He has an unique human side to his
character in spite of the role of the man that he is playing. Mr. Crafts acts as his rival, but is
extremely a suave and an elegant character.
The play is replete with the poetical ideas as Ada Lovelace begins the story with
envisioning her future in which the engine cannot only calculate numbers but with the use of
algorithms can even write or compose music. Even after her marriage, her obsession with
machines returns back to her infatuation with Charles Babbage who acts as a thorn in both
her mother’s life as well as her husband’s side. Anabelle, Ada’s mother finds the ongoing
relationship between Ada and Babbage as the evidence of the similar sanity with which Ada;s
father, Lord Byron was affected.
Overall, the direction of Heidi Powers nag her collaborations have worked
successfully together in the development of the feminist myth of triumph and transcendence.

3THEATRE REVIEW OF ADA AND THE ENGINE
Just as Ada Lovelace refused to be defeated by the external powerful forces that tried to
demean her and bring her down, in a similar manner the Theatre Unleashed tried to create a
successful production and made themselves proud. There was an intellectual thrill that fired
Ada Lovelace beyond the social limits imposed upon the women of her time. Heidi Powers
extracts larger than life but realistic performances from her cast.
The costume designer Denise Barret, sound designer Graydon Schlichter and the hair
designer Jenn Scuderi Crafts and the Projection animation by Kevin Hilton have done a
stunning job of bringing life to the characters of the play by staging Gunderson’s inventive
history into a love story about numbers and logic and as well as people. Through the play
Gunderson attempts to talk about the feminist protest of a lady who remains constricted in her
family and social boundaries but wants to fly high to her destiny and her desires and dreams.
“Ada and the Engine” is thus a provocative and impactful play which uses mathematics and
numbers to look into the future. Ada’s vision of her future, with its machine made art and
human replacing automation, has a pitch-black underside, at least in the light of her own
anxieties has been very clearly portrayed by Lauren Gunderson and the production and
direction of Heidi Powers.
Through this play, Lauren also tries to bring about the fact that if Ada Lovelace and
Charles Babbage had the advantage of living with the electronics and machines, they might
be very well successful. Even after the hurdles, they proved to be far ahead of their time and
thus were successful enough to sow the seeds of technology in the age of information .