ADA

A tsunami of change is upon us with the development of artificial intelligence and this play presents some possible impacts on the entities we are creating at breakneck speed and on human relationships and emotional wellbeing.

Anette Aghazarian as ADA, the Advanced Domestic Assistant, uses her astonishingly disciplined and expressive face and body to create a very believable and relatable robot. Her increasingly troubled inner life and the constraints she is bound by are revealed by voice overs and projections on the backdrop.

Leigh Scully and Meg Spencer are the father and mother of a child (AYA) who grows from a baby to a disaffected teenager during the play. ADA’s child rearing role makes the child the focus of many of the tensions between the mother and father and ADA. Other tensions between the couple centre on the role of ADA in their emotional lives and relationship. The child’s troubled dependence on ADA is also explored.

The narrative develops in a series of short vignettes in a white setting. The configuration of a sofa is cleverly used to symbolise the couple’s relationship. Lighting by Julian Adams combines with the sound design and compositions of Jack Burmeister to support the many transitions. The shortness of the vignettes demands a lot of the audience and the information gleaned in each vignette is sometimes repetitive. The changes in the minimal props for each transition are well managed.

This is a play needed for our times and the realisation of role of ADA is an exceptional and memorable performance.

Ruth Richter

Photographer: Darren Gill.