Anthropology - Hampstead Theatre
Sept 30, 2023 16:36:49 GMT
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Post by Steve on Sept 30, 2023 16:36:49 GMT
Saw the matinee, and this is excellent sci-fi, with a dramatically effective story, incorporating a the most magnificently creepy portrayal of an AI by Dakota Blue Richards.
Some spoilers follow. . .
Sci-fi very often doesn't work on stage, cos it wants to move, and the stage restricts that. What you often get on stage is some kind of dry debate about ideas, which can be interesting, but rarely thrills.
This is an exception, in that it has a terrific story that ceaselessly moves and a scary AI that ceaselessly creeps.
The setup is that MyAnna Buring's grief-stricken Merril has built an AI of her dead sister, Angie (Dakota Blue Richards). Since Angie's body has never been found, she may or may not be dead. The AI offers to solve the mystery. . .
This is one of the best depictions of an AI I have seen on stage. There is a flat screen on tall legs, on which the head and shoulders of Dakota Blue Richards appears. Her fringe covers her forehead such that you can't scan that for an easy read of her emotions, which forces you to really look closely at her face to try to figure out what she's up to.
Since we learn that the real Angie was a "liar," we are primed not to trust the AI, even as the AI sets out to solve "her" own murder. . .
What is happening is constantly fascinating, and all developments move the story forward. The plot kept me on tenterhooks from start to finish.
Buring is an excellent protagonist, conveying all the grief and eccentricity of someone who would technologically clone their own relative.
As her ex-girlfriend, Yolanda Kettle emotively and usefully offers an outsider's perspective of the goings-on.
And as the AI, Richards is unforgettable, her smallest voice variations and intonations, her slightest eye movements, offering clues as to why we should all be very scared. And I was scared lol. It's pretty clear that not all anthropologists will be human in the (near) future.
4 and a half stars from me.
Some spoilers follow. . .
Sci-fi very often doesn't work on stage, cos it wants to move, and the stage restricts that. What you often get on stage is some kind of dry debate about ideas, which can be interesting, but rarely thrills.
This is an exception, in that it has a terrific story that ceaselessly moves and a scary AI that ceaselessly creeps.
The setup is that MyAnna Buring's grief-stricken Merril has built an AI of her dead sister, Angie (Dakota Blue Richards). Since Angie's body has never been found, she may or may not be dead. The AI offers to solve the mystery. . .
This is one of the best depictions of an AI I have seen on stage. There is a flat screen on tall legs, on which the head and shoulders of Dakota Blue Richards appears. Her fringe covers her forehead such that you can't scan that for an easy read of her emotions, which forces you to really look closely at her face to try to figure out what she's up to.
Since we learn that the real Angie was a "liar," we are primed not to trust the AI, even as the AI sets out to solve "her" own murder. . .
What is happening is constantly fascinating, and all developments move the story forward. The plot kept me on tenterhooks from start to finish.
Buring is an excellent protagonist, conveying all the grief and eccentricity of someone who would technologically clone their own relative.
As her ex-girlfriend, Yolanda Kettle emotively and usefully offers an outsider's perspective of the goings-on.
And as the AI, Richards is unforgettable, her smallest voice variations and intonations, her slightest eye movements, offering clues as to why we should all be very scared. And I was scared lol. It's pretty clear that not all anthropologists will be human in the (near) future.
4 and a half stars from me.