Review Roundup: MARJORIE PRIME at Menier Chocolate Factory

The Menier Chocolate Factory's production of Marjorie Prime just celebrated its opening night. The cast includes Nancy Carroll (Tess), Richard Fleeshman (Walter), Tony Jayawardena (Jon), and Anne Reid (Marjorie).

In this richly spare, wondrous play, Jordan Harrison explores the mysteries of human identity and the limits - if any - of what technology can replace. It's the age of artificial intelligence, and 85-year-old Marjorie - a jumble of disparate, fading memories - has a handsome new companion who's programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. What would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance?

Jordan Harrison was a 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Marjorie Prime. The play premièred at the Mark Taper Forum/Center Theater Group in Los Angeles in September 2014 and had its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

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Clive Davis, The Times: Given the speed at which everything is changing, Harrison's future may not be so far off. Who knows what surprises Mark Zuckerberg and co are about to spring? What Harrison has given us is a thought-provoking miniature that doesn't quite generate the dramatic tension you hope for.

Nick Curtis, Evening Standard: My father died after several years with dementia in 2020 so I appreciated Reid's mix of beadiness and bafflement, and the flashes of mislaid personality: it's so good to see this most subtle and knowing of actresses back on stage. Tess's weariness and petulance is also well done, and Carroll is a trooper: I'd never have guessed she'd been ill if it hadn't been announced beforehand. Marjorie Prime offers stimulating ideas and some great acting, but it's not a great play.

Alice Saville, Independent: Last Tango in Halifax star Anne Reid is the warm beating heart of this show as 85-year-old Marjorie: she's wonderfully ribald, full of life, and anything but pitiable as she lives with dementia. But then, she's got lots to be cheerful about. She's got Walter (Richard Fleeshman) to nudge her memory. He's a "Prime", or an accurate android facsimile of her late husband, forever aged 30.

Andrezej Lukowski, TimeOut: It's also well-acted, particularly Reid, who gives a smartly dissembling performance as Marjorie, who is, in many ways, far less fragile than her daughter. In the end, though, I don't think compelling ideas are enough to see it through. It feels both too short and too static, a lack of meat on the characters' bones running up against the glacial stillness of the scenes.

Kate Maltby, iNews: Two factors give this production lift off, despite its clunky building blocks. Firstly, former Globe director Dromgoole has assembled a top-tier cast. Nancy Carroll gives a blistering performance as Tess - if she was still feeling the effects of the laryngitis which forced her to cancel three previews, there was no sign of it in this energetic and committed performance. Anne Reid is a placidly infuriating Marjorie, blithely unaware of her daughter's efforts. Her exchanges with Carroll pinpoint the capacity of mother-daughter relationships for mutually affectionate cruelty.

Matt Wolf, London Theatre: Some may find the play, or this production of it, too clinical, notwithstanding snatches of Vivaldi at his most plaintive or nods in the direction of Beyoncé and Julia Roberts to leaven the mood. In fact, I was reminded of the comparably brooding work of the English writer Robert Holman, a defining collaborator of Dromgoole, as Harrison's play snaps ever more bleakly into focus.

Sam Marlowe, The Stage: Symbols and metaphors are artfully deployed. Aside from the big wink to Amazon's premium service, a Bible left by a well-meaning care worker raises questions about faith and the concept of an afterlife; the shoreline location references what Jon calls the brain's "sedimentary layers"; even the sunsets and stars beyond the windows suggest endings and infinity.

Adam Bloodworth, City AM: I'm still not sure if Harrison's play needs a stronger story arc so that the pace keeps up with the very thrilling idea at its heart. But I am sure that Majorie Prime is an astonishingly contemporary memory play with more longevity than any one life. I'm not sure whether AI can make theatre, but this theatre about AI has found new urgency.

Photo Credit: Manuel Harlan

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