By Ron Fassler . . .
At the moment, playwrights seem happy to dig into the dangers of AI because—let’s face it—there’s drama in them thar hills. Disruption, Andrew Stein’s new play which opened tonight at the Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at the Pershing Square Signature Center on 42nd Street, is a well-cast and extremely well-staged production. It joins an ongoing list of recent plays dealing with the subject that include Ayad Akhtar’s McNeal, Jordan Harrison’s Marjorie Prime, and Matthew Libby’s DATA. But what sets Disruption apart is its hard-edged sense of humor and how gracefully it is guided by director Hersh Ellis and his design team.
AI is affecting our present in ways that are incalculable and what it holds for the future is both exciting and terrifying. Hell, the future is already here. With each passing day, the power of AI increases, articulately detailed in a New York Times article this past week titled “The Impending, Inescapable Deluge of A.I.” It makes the case for just “how hard it is to get your mind around the scale” of its influence. As one character says in Disruption, “Our souls are being gutted. Which isn’t progress, it’s programming. And I know I keep saying this, but no one seems to notice. Or give a shit.”
In its first three scenes, we meet a trio of couples: Suzie (Shaunette Rene Wilson), an upper west side analyst married to Ben (Conrad Ricamora), a professor at Columbia University; Jill (Elizabeth Stanley), a one-time activist turned corporate lawyer, married to Paul (Joe Tippett), an art director for a magazine; and Mia (Irene Sofia Lucio), a designer—also Suzie’s sister—married to Barry (Jason Ralph), a surgeon. These characters, artfully drawn in subtle strokes, gather to have dinner with their old college friend Nick (John David Washington), someone who’s achieved great success in the tech world. Once settled, Nick pitches them his latest venture in conjunction with Raven (Emma Kikue), his young and brilliant business partner, asking for investments that he promises will enrich their lives beyond their wildest imaginations. The technology he is promoting is a dangerous one which will allow the ability for people to make their most important decisions based on data targeting areas of the most intimate kind. Far from a scam, the technology is both real and frightening.
What makes the play work is that it’s loaded with ideas, conflicts, and soul-searching dilemmas. What it has going against it is that its well-to-do forty-somethings may be difficult to care about, especially as they take up so much space in today’s film, television, and theatre. But when it’s done well, as it is here, set against an AI storyline that is very much of the moment, Disruption scores a lot of points. This is Stein’s breakout play, with its New York premiere coming after its London’s Park Theatre production in July 2023. With a clear ear for dialogue, he employs clever turns of phrase and happily avoids cliches. Take the line, for example, “The lightbulb didn’t take away the night,” said by Nick. “It just changed our relationship to it,” he continues. “Technology isn’t going to deny us freedom. It will enhance it.” The fact that he is speaking to the Pope makes the speech even more chilling. “In the coming years, and not that many, we’re going to live miracles,” he goes on. “And there isn’t a single person who isn’t going to be better off. Not even you, your Holiness. Not even you.”
Under Ellis’s smooth direction, moments are allowed to breathe which give the actors room to create smart and interesting characterizations. Boasting a cast in which everyone shines, I particularly enjoyed Irene Sofia Lucio’s Mia, who changes it up with a remarkably different persona from the one she displayed as Isidora, an Italian immigrant trapped in a green card marriage, in Bess Wohl’s Liberation, last season’s Tony Award-winning Best Play. She could indeed power a small village with the energy she expends as she charges about the stage. On the flip side, Conrad Ricamora turns in an effortless performance as Ben, his rich voice supplying ballast during some of the play’s most heated arguments. And Elizabeth Stanley, often so fine in musicals, brings a depth of pain to Jill that energizes her work.
A strong entry in this burgeoning New York theatre season, the production is emboldened by an exceptional set from Zoë Hurwitz—who also supplies the pitch-perfect costumes—brilliant lighting by Rez Behjat, and noteworthy video design by Yana Biryükova. AI may get the better of us ways to come we can’t predict, but I can’t imagine a machine writing a play as smart and stimulating as Disruption.
Disruption is playing at the Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W 42nd Street, NYC, now through September 27th. For ticket information, please click here.
Photos by Emilio Madrid.
Headline photo John David Washington and Conrad Ricamora.
