THE ANTIQUITIES
by Jordan Harrison
Directed by David Cromer and Caitlin Sullivan
Playwrights Horizons
Reviewed by David Spencer
There are theatrical evenings about which I, as both theatre critic and professional dramatist, can offer a reasonably objective, sometimes even definitive, view. There are others about which I have to cop to a subjective view, though offered with the authority I have, as one that may well be shared by the reader who decides to attend.
Then there are those—more of them these days, it seems, but maybe it’s me being older and wiser in the face of a landscape changing—where all I can do is report about what to expect; where my personal reaction is almost irrelevant. The Antiquities by Jordan Harrison is one such.
It takes a while to get into its groove because it doesn’t reveal its groove right away…which is the first of two bookend moments—the only two in the play—where onstage characters address the audience, make observations about the audience…before stepping into the scene behind them and closing the fourth wall. That scene is a gathering of Mary Shelley and her friends, as she begins to tell the tale she has just devised…which is of course Frankenstein, about an artificially created man. The scene is but a vignette…which then jumps to another scene in another era, altogether different characters, but the notion of technical innovation toward quicker calculation has become less strange…then another random leap ahead…then another…each era closer to our own, artificial intelligence (AI) becoming more and more sophisticated…
…and then we leap past our own era. And with each successive leap, AI becomes more dominant, the survival of humankind more perilous…and upon the climax of this arc…
…we begin leaping backwards. Revisiting those past eras. Sometimes via vignettes that are a direct continuation, sometimes “sequel” vignettes…until we’re back where we started, and Mary finishes her story.
I’ve avoided particularizing the leaps because discovery is part of the experience; but you get the idea…a journey from fantasy through history to science fiction and apocalypse…and then backward. The scenery is necessarily spare, the ensemble of nine of course plays multiple roles. And the structure makes clear why there are two directors (David Cromer and Caitlin Sullivan): because The Antiquities is, in essence, an evening of a dozen or so miniature two act plays: Act One on the way forward through the centuries; Act Two on the way back. It’s all delivered as skillfully…well, as it needs to be. No more, no less. For all the emphasis on the ramifications of thinking tech, the play’s tech is minimal. Even minimalist.
Your familiarity with science fiction will have some part in determining how you feel about the play. Which includes whether or not you’re ahead of it and whether or not the anticipation of being ahead is part of the ominous fun. If fun is the word.
A paradox is that while real-life debates about AI are given dramatic treatment in The Antiquities, the issues are not at all new to science fiction. Worlds where tech has taken over? Where tech has absorbed life? Replaced life? Popularized on television alone: Cyborgs, Cylons, Cybermen, The Borg, Mudd’s Women…Daleks. Demon With a Glass Hand, The Sixth Finger…we’ve encountered such warnings and speculations before.
The difference—and it’s a difference The Antiquities shares with the new musical Maybe Happy Ending—is that unlike most previous theatrical forays into science fiction (and I will selfishly exempt my, Alan Menken and Alan Brennert’s 1992 Weird Romance from this), the playwright gets the genre and isn’t presuming to reinvent the wheel. Just offering his own variations on a theme, tinged with present day awe, appreciation and paranoia. Which is a grand science fiction tradition.
My own personal feeling? Took me a while to get on board, I admired its component parts and delivery system as I did, but never became enthusiastic. I hasten to add, though, that comes of being old enough to have seen, read and even worked on so much of the genre that the novelty of its currency isn’t enough to freshen it for me. Whereas someone younger, less prolifically versed, may find it at least intellectually exhilarating.
The one definitive observation I can offer is this: The Antiquities can only encourage other theatrical contenders in the science-fiction/social-comment arena to step up their game. That it’s here is all to the good.