cover art by Carey Marks, Scarlet Design; photograph by Eric Richmond
“If the
political-advertising principle of equal time were applied to entertainment
programming, every game show would be followed by SCREWMACHINE/EYECANDY. While
the game show as a metaphor for the horrors of consumer culture is somewhat
overdone, in the hands of CJ Hopkins the conceit is nothing short of a
blistering revelation.
Hopkins’s body of work owes a huge debt to the absurdists and so manages to
blast beyond the merely political or allegorical to the existential. Bits of
GODOT and NO EXIT seem present in all his plays.”
Trav S D, Time Out
New York
“If
SCREWMACHINE/EYECANDY, playwright CJ Hopkins's latest indictment of American
crassness and overconsumption, serves as any indication, our country hasn't
learned much....
Hopkins's sharp-toothed satire…”
Alexis Soloski, Village Voice
“As a
metaphor for the unaccountable, bullying, shape-changing and fear-mongering face
of power in our increasingly media-driven consumer democracies, it could hardly
be more potent.
One of the angriest and most chilling pieces of political theatre on this
year's Fringe.”
Joyce MacMillan, The Scotsman
“SCREWMACHINE/EYECANDY starts out as one of those eyes-and-teeth American T V
game shows but rapidly descends into something much blacker and almost surreal
as America's relationship with consumerism and the media is unerringly
skewered.”
Robert Dawson Scott, The Times
“The use
of the game show as metaphor for what is politely called the American condition
is not a new concept.... The premise has been used in films such as The Truman
Show and Magnolia. CJ Hopkins has made brazen use of this metaphor to create a
vicious piece of agit prop.
...Not only does SCREWMACHINE/EYECANDY beat its audiences harder, but it
contains fragmentary glimpses of America's vastness that leave you breathless.
Tim Abrahams, The Guardian
3 M, 1 F
I S B N: 0-88145-338-2, $12.95