If you were to add it all up, you’d probably find the amount of time you spend talking to your smart devices (Alexa, Siri etc) is more than you spend with some family or friends, and many of us have probably become over reliant on them to carry out simple tasks on our behalf. Taking inspiration from this modern way of life is Aaron Thakar’s Artificially Yours, which has its premiere at Riverside Studios.
Looking suspiciously like an Amazon device, we’re introduced to the Agapē, which takes the concept of a personal assistant device a step further. Agapē, (voiced by Katherine Moran) is a virtual therapist, providing couples counselling to those who need it, or at least think they do.
Artificially Yours shows us how the Agapē device affects three different couples; Pippa and Martin, Ellie and Noah, and Lilah and Ash. Although there’s some crossover between the couples, the result is effectively the same in all three scenarios.
As a debut play, Aaron Thakar’s script shows a lot of promise. There’s an interesting dynamic between the various couples which deserves to be explored more fully, and the commentary the play makes on both the advantages and disadvantages of AI technology is well thought through.
But in its current form it struggles to live up to its full potential. The biggest issue is how long it takes us to get to the key points; all the important stuff happens in the last ten minutes, and at this point it feels like everything that came before was just filler, carrying us through to the inevitable conclusion.
The characters also need some work. Pippa (Leslie Ash) feels very under-utilised and that’s a shame, as she should provide more perspective as the older female character. Ellie, though deliberately written as irritating, verging on unhinged, doesn’t ring true and the relationship between Ash, played by the playwright, and Lilah (Destiny Mavers) also feels underwritten.
Artificially Yours is billed as a dark comedy, and while some of the jokes don’t land, there are some very amusing and genuine laugh out loud moments. These mainly come from Noah and work best because of the expert comic timing of Jake Mavis. This is the actor’s first time on stage and what a triumphant debut it is; Jake Mavis is most definitely a talent to watch out for.
Artificially Yours would probably fare well at the Edinburgh Fringe, thanks to its minimal set and easy scene transitions. But for it to have a future life, it would benefit from being cut down considerably, and forced to focus on the storytelling and character development.
Artificially Yours will play at Riverside Studios in London until Sunday 21 April
