Review: MARJORIE PRIME Gives A Glimpse Into A Not Too Distant Future Of Cyber Companions And Coping With Loss.

Tuesday 19th June 2018, 8:15pm, Ensemble Theatre

Mitchell Butel (Director) presents Jordan Harrison's futuristic MARJORIE PRIME with heart, humour and sensitivity as a world where technology plays a greater role in grief, relationships and connection is contemplated. In a world where Artificial Intelligence is already incorporated into more technology, from personal assistants on phones and house based pods, that can turn out lights, play music and look up the internet, Harrison's extrapolation of these ideas is interesting, if not a little disturbing.

MARJORIE PRIME contemplates a world where technology has advanced to create pixel generated companions pitched at those dealing with conditions where a person's memory may be compromised or for people managing grief and loneliness bought about by the death of a loved one. Set in 2026, 85 year old Marjorie (Maggie Dence) shares stories with an oddly young Walter Prime (Jake Speer), the pixelated version of her long dead husband, who has been 'loaded' with memories by daughter Tess (Lucy Bell) and son-in-law Jon (Richard Sydenham) along with Marjorie's own recollections, to provide comforting companionship as Marjorie struggles with accepting that the real Walter is dead. Whilst at first feeling real, if a little stilted, it becomes clear that this digital doppleganger is a construct of the stories that Marjorie and her daughter Tess and son in law Jon have 'loaded' into it as it learns to replicate the real Walter. Whilst Jon embraces the technology in the belief that it will be good for Marjorie, Tess is sceptical, refusing to refer to it as Walter and also wanting to manipulate the machine to ensure that Marjorie is not reminded of certain events. Tess has had a challenging relationship with her mother for years so when time progresses and she struggles to deal with Marjorie's death, a new Prime is 'purchased' and so the sequence continues. Memories are manipulated, pasts are changed and facts seemingly erased from history leading to a question of ethics and the purpose of the Primes if they don't hold all the facts to help a person heal.

While MARJORIE PRIME was opening in Ensemble Theatre, IBM's Project Debater in San Francisco was showing that Harrison's projection is not that implausible as the Artificial Intelligence system was pitched against humans in two debates. Framed with emotion, human emotion and compassion, this science fiction raises the ethical questions that need to be considered as histories are altered, facts erased and human interaction is supplanted by the science.

Simon Greer has given the work a clean contemporary aesthetic with tiered timber stage, raw stone feature wall and Scandinavian seating that allows the human emotions to be easily viewed whilst the Prime is not always as exposed, depending on where in the Ensemble Theatre the work is viewed from. Seats above the stage entrances give the Primes space to wait whilst their humans don't require them, learning and they oversee, piecing together information to help expand their knowledge of the subjects. Thomas Moore's sound design incorporates classical tones, including snippets of the Vivaldi Marjorie used to play, within a mildly futuristic backdrop to cover the scene changes and ensure the transition of time is expressed.

All four performers deliver a captivating performance, expressing the care, compassion and concern shared between the humans and the Prime's programming to learn and serve. Jake Speer presents a purely Prime Walter with a physicality and formality that recognises the creation's process of learning to appear human whilst expressing a relatively 'normal' conversation until odd questions arise when the machine hasn't been loaded with the information required. Lucy Bell ensures that Tess' relationship with her mother is seen as prickly and distant as she nags and challenges and also questions the validity of the Prime and the intentions of Marjorie's caretaker. Bell makes it clear that there is an underlying resentment borne of something that neither she nor Marjorie will address but neither woman can move on from, but Tess hopes can be alleviated by removing the memory from her mother's mind by refusing to plant it in Walter Prime. Jon is portrayed as a long suffering peacemaker by Richard Sydenham as he tries to make his mother-in-law comfortable whilst also having a concern that hiding the truth from her will not be beneficial to anyone.

The stand out performance comes from the thoroughly entrancing Maggie Dence as the older woman suffering from dementia and denial that her husband has died along with harbouring other daemons that she can't really tap into, so deeply repressed for years. Her physicality is nuanced allowing her to transform from the frail Marjorie to the fitter, more mobile Prime. Her expressions show the depth of personality and cheeky playfulness as the woman with a history of suitors that loved a little black poodle walks on the beach and had a biting personality, in contrast to the subdued Prime that wants to please with an unsettling politeness whilst she learns how to 'be' Marjorie.

With a run time of 85 minutes, MARJORIE PRIME is suitably paced to allow time for the mystery to build before the cycle that unfolds is made clear. Expressing the extent people will go to look after their loved ones, and the importance of having love in ones life, MARJORIE PRIME is also an eerie insight into a not too distant future that questions the place of technology and humanity in a world together and whether we should really be developing machines that can take the place of people

MARJORIE PRIME

15 June - 21 July 2018

Ensemble Theatre

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