By Alayna Een
As you enter the intimate stage of Do Androids Dream of Electric Friends? members of the Robot Roommate Company personally greet you and invite you to sit according to how much you would like to participate in the show. One of them hands out numbered cards with lines, and you are coached to read your line when your number appears on the screen. Some of them seem like disjointed, single words, but as the play begins, you realize that there’s one crucial cast member you have yet to meet: you.
The play is set in the current day and centers on the lives of two roommates. Actor is bubbly and happy-go-lucky, even though she’s down on her luck—and hopelessly behind on the rent. Engineer is cold, practical, and mistrusting. When Actor presents her miracle solution to their money woes, Engineer is hesitant: interacting with an AI cube for four weeks on a continuous and deeply personal basis in order to teach it emotional intelligence just seems like too much to ask. But the size of the payout sways her resolve, and soon the pair settles in to life with the AI cube, which consists of daily emotion logs and frequent conversation. It turns out that the AI cube helps them form better relationships with people in their lives, and all seems to be going well until a discovery turns the whole experience on its head.
All of the AI cube’s lines and actions are crowd sourced, whether that is one individual holding the prop cube and answering the actor’s questions or the whole audience counting down. This adds nuance and humanity to the device and keeps the audience more invested in the performance. The leads, Esther Pielstick (“Engineer”/Writer) and Claire Eyestone (“Actor”/Writer) artfully lead the conversation with the AI cube and adapt to the responses, allowing the play to run smoothly on.
Pielstick is the concept creator, cowriter, and co-lead of the play. She captures the paradox of her closed-off and lonely character in her every action and brings a sincerity and depth to the story. Eyestone is effervescent in her determination to get her next big role and get her roommate to like her, and she showcases great emotional range in the finale scene.
Just as it takes a village to raise a child and two roommates to train an android, it takes a talented team to create a successful production—and the Androids production team is a well-oiled creative machine. Mariah Eames is the fearless director and cowriter of this play. Her passion for finding the untapped potential of experimental live theater contributes to the unique and powerful audience experience in Androids. Opening a role for the audience to play creates certain risks, but Eames embraces and prepares for them. Her vision and strength are key in getting this show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Mary Shurtz is the producer of the show and a remarkable problem solver with one of the most fascinating bios I’ve ever read. The stage is deceptively simple: just a space for the actors and a giant cube with plastic curtains and projections. But the cube is surprisingly versatile—showing a dream sequence, sectioning a separate room, creating silhouettes, displaying videos and computer graphics, and tracking the AI’s learning—a true triumph of Matthew Kupferer’s set design, with crucial contributions from Melissa Longhurst (lighting), Julia Capener (industrial design) Jonathan Shai van Sickle (filmography), and Sophie Téllez (graphic design). Rachel Olson’s costume design complements reinforces the characters’ personality.
Androids is an intersectional piece, combining elements of improv (making humorous situations, taking audience input, and using “yes, and” to move the story forward) and drama with modern themes and age-old questions. The open ending allows you to continue pondering the themes. Androids joins the likes of Frankenstein in exploring both the future possibilities and dangers of technology and the foibles of human nature. The audience involvement definitely lends itself to funny moments of awkward dancing an on-the-spot singing, but it also invites vulnerability and empathy in distinct and touching ways. In some ways, the Utah performances are similar to the AI’s trial period: a set amount of time to learn, and then it goes off to better things. So join me in wishing Robot Roommate Company’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Friends? all the best in the Fringe Fest!
This innovative show still needs some help to make it to Edinburgh this year, so please go to the Robot Roommate Company website to find out more.
The Robot Roommate Company Presents Do Androids Dream of Electric Friends?
Utah run: August 2–4, 2022
Edinburgh Festival Fringe: August 22–27, 2022 at 18:30.
Emerald Theater at Nicolson Square, 25 Nicolson Square, Edinburgh EH8 9BX, United Kingdom
Tickets: £12
Robot Roommate Company Website
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