Pittsburgh’s City Theatre revisits 25-year-old play exploring media, technology

City Theatre in Pittsburgh is bringing back a play that first appeared on its stage 25 years ago.

“The Medium,” a postmodern deconstruction of the musings of writer/philosopher Marshall McLuhan, will run from Jan. 22 through Feb. 13 on the City Theatre Main Stage on Pittsburgh’s South Side.

The third show of the 2021-22 subscription season is presented by New York City-based SITI Company.

“The production was originally created in 1993 and conceived to explore the then-burgeoning field of technology through the lens of Marshall McLuhan,” said Anne Bogart, SITI Company co-artistic director, who conceived the play. “We follow the famous Canadian philosopher of media studies on an Alice in Wonderland-like journey through the landscape of his profound insights about the effects of media upon the human experience.

“Now, nearly 30 years later, the play seems even more relevant to the world that we inhabit today than it did when we first created it,” she said.

First seen at City Theatre in 1996, “ ‘The Medium’ explores the effect of media and emerging technologies on our perceptions, our psyches, and our personal lives,” according to a release.

“ ‘The Medium’ is structured upon the well-known narrative format of ‘the hero’s journey,’ which can be found in stories and fairy tales from around the world and throughout history,” Bogart said. “Our hero is based upon the great Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan who, in the 1960s, was able to predict what would happen to us when the media, digital technology and the internet would dominate our lives.”

Through the television screen

In a confused state after suffering a stroke, the character of McLuhan finds himself transported, like “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” into the world of television.

Unable to speak, McLuhan “moves from channel to channel, experiencing firsthand the fulfillment of his worst and most insightful dreams,” Bogart said.

“The scenes in ‘The Medium’ are presented in the form of television genres, including classic varieties like a Western, a hospital drama, a game show, a family show, a chat show and so on,” she added. “Each genre form functions as a container for different insights and themes from Marshall McLuhan’s writings. McLuhan himself, our main character, travels through this TV landscape.”

Directed by Bogart, “The Medium” features performers William Bond, Gian-Murray Gianino, Ellen Lauren, Barney O’Hanlon, Violeta Picayo and Stephen Duff Webber.

“One can see the irony in the fact that this prescient philosopher, who spoke and wrote so eloquently and playfully on the media and culture, should suffer the inability to communicate,” Bond said. “In this way, one might call him a modern-day Cassandra who is insightful enough to sound the warning, but doomed to have his warnings not be believed by his own culture.”

The other characters are ordinary people dealing with extraordinary changes brought about by the rapidly changing world, in scenes that are expressionistic and collage-like. The text is taken from McLuhan’s writings, expressionistic writings of the 1920s and modern media.

“Scenes, movements, and moments shift abruptly, at times manically, suddenly lyrically, as in the blips and bleeps of electronic media,” Bogart said.

Issues stemming from the widespread sharing of information — and disinformation — go back to the advent of the printing press, Bogart said.

McLuhan was “the first person able to articulate the stress and complexity of the world in which we now find ourselves,” she said. “He was the progenitor of such familiar notions as ‘the global village’ and ‘the medium is the message.’ He began to understand the effect of media and emerging technologies on our perceptions, our psyches, and our personal lives.”

Exploring such issues is the very raison d’etre of theatre, Bond said.

“Among theater’s perennial questions are ‘Who are we? Do we know what is happening to us? And most importantly, how can we get along, or function together, better?’ ” he said.

Scenic and lighting is by SITI Company member Brian H. Scott, costumes are by Obie Award-winner Gabriel Berry and soundscape by is Tony Award-winner Darron L. West. Patti Kelly is the production stage manager.

Thrilled to be back

Following its newly adapted revival in Pittsburgh, the production will travel to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City.

“We are thrilled and delighted to bring our production of ‘The Medium’ back home to City Theatre,” Bogart said. “Our long association with Pittsburgh, Marc Masterson and City Theatre conspire to make this a meaningful event indeed.”

“City Theatre is proud to be a part of the internationally renowned SITI Company’s past, present and future,” said Masterson, City Theatre co-artistic director. “This collaboration has spanned four decades and has generated productions that have been seen all over the world.”

Five plays have premiered between the two companies since the original Pittsburgh staging of “The Medium.”

Masks and proof of vaccination or negative covid-19 test will be required of all audience members. Exceptions will be made for those under age 12, who must be accompanied by an adult who meets the venue’s vaccination requirements, and for guests who need reasonable accommodations due to a medical exception or sincerely held religious belief.

For more information and tickets, call 412-431-2489 or visit citytheatrecompany.org.

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