At the Museum of Late Human Antiquities, the curators are fiercely committed to bringing a lost civilization to life again: What were humans really like? What did they wear, what did they eat, how did they die out? By casting us into the far future, Jordan Harrison’s new play gives us an uncanny view of the present moment, as we straddle the analog world that was and the post-human world to come.
The play’s episodic structure results in inevitable choppiness, with some vignettes landing harder than others. The back-and-forth chronology, with later scenes sometimes bookending earlier ones, can prove confusing. But under the precise direction of David Cromer and Caitlin Sullivan, The Antiquities proves a provocative cautionary tale, not that one was needed, about how we may not always be able to fully control the technology that seems to be advancing with dizzying speed. The writing is consistently clever, such as the tiny mistakes the characters sometimes make when emulating human behavior that they never experienced firsthand.
Running 100 minutes without intermission, The Antiquities gets credit for conceptual creativity and topicality. Even though it doesn’t break new ground when it comes to the power and perils of technology, it grips with a quiet urgency.
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Playwrights Horizons Off-Broadway Premiere Production Off-Broadway |
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