Stage West's THE (CURIOUS CASE OF THE) WATSON INTELLIGENCE Begins Tonight

Could you have a meaningful relationship with someone like Siri? Would you want an actual relationship with an artificial intelligence, no matter how perfect? This is just one of the questions posed in Madeleine George's clever, time-jumping Pulitzer Prize finalist, The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, beginning a 5-week run tonight, February 19.

Watson: Thomas A. Watson, noted assistant of Alexander Graham Bell; Dr. John H. Watson, Sherlock Holmes's friend and assistant; Josh Watson, member of a Geek Squad type of company; Watson, a humanoid computer named after IBM's Jeopardy!-winning computer.

Eliza: a radio interviewer from the 1930s; a worried Victorian-era woman who fears her husband wants to kill her; a modern-day computer scientist who is perfecting her Watson program. Merrick: a Victorian inventor who is contemplating replacing his imperfect Eliza with a sort of Stepford version; the jilted politician husband of modern-day Eliza, who is certain she has been unfaithful to him.

The lives of all these characters interweave and affect each other in surprising, funny, and touching ways, leading us to wonder: has the techno-revolution made things easier and more satisfying for us? Or has it left us disconnected from the sometimes messy, but very human relationships we need?

Madeleine George's play The Most Massive Woman Wins premiered as part of the Young Playwrights Festival at the Public Theater in 1994. Since then, her plays, including The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England, Precious Little, and The Zero Hour, have been produced and developed by Playwrights Horizons, 13P, Clubbed Thumb, Soho Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Theatre Club, Berkeley Rep and Shotgun Players in Berkeley, City Theatre in Pittsburgh, About Face Theatre in Chicago, Two River Theater Company in New Jersey, and the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, among other places. She has received a MacDowell Fellowship, the Princess Grace Playwriting Award, and the Jane Chambers Award, as well as commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, and Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis. Madeleine is a resident playwright at New Dramatists, an alum of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and the Lark Playwrights' Workshop, and a founding member of the Obie-Award-winning playwrights collective 13P (www.13p.org). She lives in Brooklyn.

Emily Scott Banks, who just directed the well-received Mainstage Irving-Las Colinas production of The Heiress, is making her Stage West directorial debut. Stage West production and marketing assistant Garret Storms, last seen at Stage West as Captain Jack Absolute in The Rivals, plays the amiable Watson. Allison Pistorius, who was seen as the flaky Susannah in Stage West's Bedroom Farce, appears as Eliza. And Aaron Roberts, who just appeared at Stage West (and WaterTower Theatre) as the cobra-loving Professor Cope in The Explorers Club, will play Merrick.

The set will be designed by Jim Covault, with lighting by Michael O'Brien and sound by Rich Frohlich. Costume design will be handled by Michael Robinson and Dallas Costume Shoppe, with projection design by Nate Davis and props and set décor by Lynn Lovett.

The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence will preview Thursday, February 19 at 7:30 and Friday, February 20 at 8:00, and will run through Sunday, March 22. Performance times will be Thursday evenings at 7:30, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00, with Sunday matinees at 3:00. The opening night reception will be Saturday, February 21. Ticket prices range from $30 to $34, with discounts for the preview performance, and for students, seniors, and military. Food service is available 90 minutes prior to performances (reservations are necessary), and the Friday Prix Fixe special (dinner and show for $42) will be available beginning February 27. Reservations and information are available through the Box Office (817-784-9378), or on the website, www.stagewest.org.

Photo by Buddy Myers

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