SNL’s Rachel Dratch Plays MIT Scientist-Author in New NYC Play

rachel dratch MIT

Saturday Night Live alum Rachel Dratch is putting aside her signature Debbie Downer grimace and taking a turn playing an award-winning MIT scientist in the play Privacy, which opened in New York City on July 2.

Dratch plays Massachusetts Institute of Technology media scholar Sherry Turkle, alongside Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, in a theatrical production that examines the science of technology and how it’s changing human life. The real-life Turkle has written several books on the topic, including Alone Together (2011) and Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age (2015).

Part comedy and part lecture, Privacy examines the human capacity for solitude and the ever-increasing encroachment of technology, surveillance, and social media. Unlike other live performances, audience members are encouraged to keep their phones on, as rings, texts, and email alerts underscore the play’s themes of the ubiquity of digital communication in our lives.

Turkle said she is a fan of Dratch’s work and wholly endorses the comedian’s portrayal of her on stage.

“I feel that I could not be in better hands,” Turkle said in a statement. She also said that live theater is the ideal medium to pull way from the cell phones and tablets and take a look around us.

“In my view, live theater is one of the places where we experience the power of ‘being there,’” Turkle said. “It has a key role to play for the public good. Developing a political sensibility happens best in the actual not the virtual.”

Privacy was a box office success when it premiered in London in 2014 and has been re-written for American audiences. It runs through August 14 at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street. For more information, go to publictheater.org.

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Dan Murphy is a freelance writer in Buffalo. Pre-order his new book documenting the rise of women’s wrestling from sideshow to WWE main event on Amazon.com, "Sisterhood of the Squared Circle: The History and Rise of Women’s Wrestling"
Dan Murphy
Dan Murphy
Dan Murphy is a freelance writer in Buffalo. Pre-order his new book documenting the rise of women’s wrestling from sideshow to WWE main event on Amazon.com, "Sisterhood of the Squared Circle: The History and Rise of Women’s Wrestling"