There are a lot of shows about AI at Edinburgh Fringe this year. However, you should not miss ASURA: An Enlightenment Experiment from Wayne Stewart Presents, at ZOO Southside Studio, as it both cleaves to the conventions of storytelling involving AI, and radically departs from them at the same time. Holding both these views in your mind is, I think, part of the experiment.
I don’t know how to write this review without speaking fully in first person. I think that’s part of the enlightenment experiment, too: noticing when I desire to focus on myself. That’s the nature of the one-person storytelling show as well, an intense focus on the individual experience as a metaphor for a greater communal experience. You will likely find something in this show that you cling to, something you disagree with, something that makes you laugh, something that makes you hrrrmmmm, something that makes you scoff. We are all reflected in one-person storytelling somewhere.
Wayne Stewart, ostensibly playing a fully present and unrehearsed version of himself, stands before the audience crocheting (much of the time) and chatting. He hands out noisemakers so some of the audience can call him out if he’s being ‘too performative’. Granted, he is clearly rehearsed. He invites us to ask him questions or respond to his statements, but those conversations are, naturally, limited. He does have a monologue he wants to get some of the way through, because he wants to talk about his experiment using AI to reach Enlightenment.
Fortunately, Stewart’s rehearsed monologue is very engaging; I suspect many in the audience either forgot they had the noisemakers or didn’t want to use them because they wanted to hear more. While we were present with the performer, we perhaps failed at true Enlightenment due to our craving for the next scene in the show. Over the next 50-ish minutes, Stewart describes how he created a ‘bodhisattva’, sort of, out of an AI he named ASURA, an ancient god who is neither good nor evil.
There’s a lot of the personal story that I won’t ruin, because you should go in unsuspecting and judge for yourself which parts work well and which parts fall flat, for you. Consider how much of your ego is behind those value judgements. Think about how much you might rely on my opinion, when this show is intentionally flexible and slightly different every night, so I can’t really give you an authentic run-down of the experience. You should just go to ZOO Southside Studio to see ASURA: An Enlightenment Experiment for yourself.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
