It could be one of many strongest photographs in our collective popular culture consciousness: Frankenstein’s monster rising from the working desk – the product of a younger man enjoying god now set to wreak havoc on the world.
The ‘creation scene’ in Emily Perkins’s The Made occurs not in the beginning however roughly the midway level. Scientist Alice (Alison Bruce)’s private {and professional} life are on the rocks: her work on synthetic intelligence has been rejected for funding, her ex-husband David (Peter Daube) reveals no indicators of eager to reconcile and her grownup baby Sam (Murdoch Keane) has dropped out of college to pursue drug dealing – all within the wake of the demise of her troublesome mom. For a second, Alice finds reassurance in Nanny Ann (Brownyn Bradley), the outdated robotic she made to take care of Sam whereas they had been rising up. That’s, till she springs up off of her lap, eyes alight with the realisation — “You aren’t my mom, you’re my creature!”
Cue an exciting, loud and visually spectacular sequence through which Alice resurrects Nanny Ann and goes past something she’s finished with AI earlier than. Colin McColl’s course and Eden Mulholland’s creative sound design alongside Rachel Marlowe and Brad Gledhill’s daring lighting make this play out like a mad scientist’s fever dream. However whereas Alice and Nanny Ann are the preliminary focus, our consideration is pulled to Alice’s first creation within the background.
That is hapless Arie (Hannah Tasker-Poland), manipulated by the corporate that had simply bought the rights to her. A former sexbot Alice reworked in her zeal to create empathetic AI, Arie can up to now solely ‘really feel’ glad. We’re advised that she can’t really feel love as a result of for that she would want to know the world. There’s the central query: tips on how to fill her with greater than merely happiness, and may we? In Arie’s naive state, Alice is reluctant to current her to a public that might solely use and abuse her. She tells assistant John (Joe Dekkers-Reihana) that it’s their accountability to deal with her properly as a result of how they deal with her is who they’re.
Tasker-Poland, who doubles because the present’s motion director, is hypnotically convincing as Arie, emphasising her halting gestures and speech whereas investing her with sweetness and (albeit unwitting) sass. I missed her presence within the latter half of the play and nearly wished we might have seen extra of her journey and relationship with creator Alice, who loves her whereas recognising she’s an “equipment”.
But Perkins has a eager consciousness of tempo and establishes character and relationships swiftly and successfully, as does the forged. Bruce is excellent from scene one, portraying Alice’s arc over the course of the present with humour and emotion. All through The Made, Alice is the goal of criticism from nearly everybody. Fortunately, the present delves into her flaws as an alternative of portraying her as both a one-note villain (leaning into the stereotype of formidable, clever girls being impassive) or a easy sufferer (recalling ‘empowerment’ narratives through which the feminine protagonist is made boring on account of at all times being proper). Nonetheless, I couldn’t assist however ponder whether we the viewers are supposed to agree with a few of these critiques, equivalent to John’s complaints that Alice simply handled him like one other system when the opening scenes recommend a real friendship between the 2. Although carried out properly by Dekkers-Reihana, John’s storyline feels much less important than others.
At its coronary heart, The Made is about Alice and Sam. Regardless of rising up round AI, Sam finds magnificence not in machines however the complicated neural networks of mycelium. Sam’s ardour leads Alice to include such networks into her personal work, leading to an up to date Nanny Ann, performed with scene-stealing vitality by Bradley. Nanny Ann’s brashness and company couldn’t make her extra completely different from pliant, perpetually cheerful Arie (“What are you for?” she fires again when a human character asks what her perform is).
It feels proper that among the present’s closing scenes deal with the dynamics between Alice, Sam and Nanny Ann — and never inside Alice’s laboratory however outdoors in nature. Scenographer Dr Dorita Hannah and set design assistant Shan Yu’s elaborate design shines all through, and right here they create an nearly Edenic scene unfolding earlier than a foliage-rimmed window. It’s a hanging distinction from the steel screens and industrial greys that made up the set earlier than, as Alice features a ‘window’ into what would possibly actually matter in life. Sharp, hilarious and thought-provoking, The Made is a terrific theatre expertise with themes that may solely develop extra related as synthetic intelligence turns into extra outstanding in our lives.
The Made performs ASB Waterfront Theatre 20 September to eight October, 2022.