Sunday, May 07, 2006

Napoleon Vs. The Turk

I know this is a blog about technology (and rants thereof) but I thought I'd use it to shamelessly plug a play that I wrote, Napoleon Vs. The Turk.

The Turk was a chess playing 'automaton' from around the late 18th - 19th century. Except that it didn't play chess on its own - it was an elaborate hoax that hid a man inside the box who actually controlled the game. Oh, and it played a game against (and beat) Napoleon. Yup, that Napoleon.

The play is based on that match, with a lot of other stuff made up around it. It's been a dream of mine to write and produce this play since about 1999, and it's finally happening at this summer's Toronto Fringe , July 6-16th. We have an excellent director, Luke Davies, and a really top-notch cast, original music, and custom-designed costumes. It's going to be great.

Check out our website, www.theturk.ca, and make a donation to help a great project get off of the ground!