Loneliness Was a Pandemic
Written by Olivia Haller; Directed by Alex Kopnick
Theaterlab at 357 W 36th St. 3rd floor, NYC
November 1-24, 2024
Emily Sullivan as Human 1 (Photo Credit: Danny Bristoll @dannybristollphoto)
I read recently of a teen who fell in love with an AI bot and committed suicide. They always knew it was a bot. Perhaps they had never imagined loving something that wasn't real. Yet, humans do it all the time. We anthropomorphize dolls and stuff animals, even invisible imaginary friends. As a child, I loved a stuffed dog to bits - actual bits that wound up in a plastic sandwich bag. And when I discovered, at 18, that someone had thrown out the baggy, I was inconsolable.
Even Tom Hanks had Wilson.
Olivia Haller's Loneliness Was a Pandemic explores a possible not so distant future where the Androids have taken over and the only humans they've kept are those they still need to learn from - the artists. The robots have all the knowledge and all the skill, but they have no soul. Robot 1 would like Human 1 to provide instruction. Human 1, deftly portrayed by Emily Sullivan, fears making herself obsolete. Also, how do you explain art to a soulless things with no feelings? Art is more than skill.
Human 1 is kept in virtual isolation. Yes, she has daily sessions with Robot 1 and there's surveillance by an eye-in-the-sky Robot 2, but they don't fill the void left by human beings. She does occasionally get to video chat with her lover, a writer who is being kept elsewhere. But for all the technology, the connection is always lost.
Alex Kopnick directs a masterful chess match between Human and Robot. As the play explores what makes a human human, it explains just why a Robot can never be an artist. They are incapable of suffering. Better still, they cannot comprehend voluntarily suffering. The ensemble of artists who have created Loneliness Was a Pandemic provide a cautionary tale reminding us to be present and appreciate the now.
There is something extra special about this piece being a play as opposed to being written for film. Thirty living, breathing, thinking humans silently sitting and watching three other humans tell them a story created and designed by a half a dozen more. It's ironic - as is Andrew Moorhead's Robot 1. An actor is trained to react to whatever is in front of them. Sure, they pretend there's a 4th wall and they don't say "bless you" when someone in the audience sneezes, but type of modern acting America is known for is acting and reacting naturally. And reacting is precisely what Andrew Moorhead could not allow himself to do. He couldn't so much as itch his nose because an android doesn't get itchy. Moorhead's Robot is the perfect counter to Sullivan's Human who needed to swing from the depths of one emotions to the next.
Beautifully written, directed, designed and performed, this production of Loneliness Was a Pandemic is a masterful collaboration. A stunning reminder of why art matters.
Creative Team: Set Design by Joyce He, Lighting Design by Sarah Woods, Sound Design by Mitch Toher, Costume Design by Sophie Taylor , and Projection Design by Alex Kopnick with Fight and Intimacy Director Mike Magliocca, Composer Bryan Eng . Production Stage Manager is Emani Simpson with Assistant Stage Manager and Assistant Technical Director Carly Gilmore, Production and Key Art Photographer Danny Bristol, and Social Media Marketing by Neon Lights Digital Media.
Click HERE for tickets.
Review by Nicole Jesson.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on November 2nd, 2024. All rights reserved.