Theater Review by Marilyn Lester…
There’s a familiar saying that learning from the past is a bulwark against repeating past mistakes. But is it? And right now, in a world pretty much in chaos, with our nation divided and with challenges to truth being attacked from nearly every angle, can history save us from the path of destruction? These are some of the key ideas in playwright Jordan Harrison’s intensely thought-provoking new play, A Tour of the Permanent Collection in the Museum of Late Human Antiquities — or simply The Antiquities (at Playwrights Horizons, in a co-production with the Vineyard Theatre and Chicago’s Goodman Theatre). Jordan asks us to take stock, to take a look at history, and maybe avoid the pitfalls that could lead us to a dystopian future where our follies have led us to the ultimate disaster.
Harrison has been mulling these thoughts of a troubled human destiny for a while. He’s certainly not alone. Many great minds over time have contemplated the ways of human evolution both in negative and positive lights, especially in relation to history. Founding Father and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, advocated the close study of the past and present to prepare for things yet to come. What Harrison has been particularly observing is how technology is informing the process of human development, especially in this age of burgeoning AI—artificial intelligence. His 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist play Marjorie Prime explored this issue: the 86-year-old Marjorie becomes dependent on an AI replicant of her deceased husband to navigate a failing memory and old age. The Amateurs and Maple and Vine dealt with similar challenges of human evolution. The Antiquities is a wake-up call.Like Marjorie we can retreat to the oblivion of a modern day opium den or take charge of our future.


At the start of The Antiquities we’re introduced to two curators who will guide us through the exhibits of the Museum of Late Human Antiquities, a curiosity cabinet of items from the distant human past. Their presence and costuming has a mythic air, an irony considering the dawn of civilization largely stemmed from the ancient Greeks, and now we’re about to explore the demise of that culture. As that path unfolds in a succession of “exhibits,” harsh realities are exposed in a series of scenes whose central theme is the creeping dependence of humans on technology, the most destructive of which is revealed as the devil of AI.
Historically, AI exploration began in 1956, more or less at the dawn of the computer age. And as crude as the technology was back then, developers were already contemplating a future when machines might possibly think for themselves, beyond mere programing. Harrison traces the root of the concept of “more/other than human” in exhibit one, in 1816, wherein we meet Percy and Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and his pregnant paramour, Claire. We can almost see the lightbulb over her head when Mary Shelley has her revelation of Dr. Frankenstein’s creation, the super-being gone horribly wrong. Sprint forward to the dawn of the computer age and smart phones to the present climate of corporate greed and tech moguls, and far forward again until we arrive at the Museum. There, the voices of the two AI beings explain the artifacts—items from the scenes previously witnessed. We learn that these objects were intended to make the owner “more powerful, more intelligent, more efficient, more immortal. More like us.” Then there’s a rewind, a trip back in time through every scene we’ve been through, meant to tie together the thread of what happened—what went wrong. And thus we learn what we suspicioned all along, that the hubris of humans led them to believe they were an endpoint in evolution. “The truth was” the AIs tell us, “they were a transitional species A blip on the timeline.”


The Antiquities is an ambitious work with a concept to be taken seriously—a clarion call to our arrogance and self-conceit. Yet, at the same time the flaw of the play is its over-reach. The speed trip through humanity’s foibles precludes truly defining the participants; who are these people we might ask ourselves? The shotgun approach to the many scenes doesn’t give us sufficient time to care enough about those depicted. Thus, the thread that ties them together, that connects the scenes, their very humanity, is ultimately a weakened one. Harrison’s overarching message is clear, but it’s an intellectual concept that precludes the emotional investment needed to make this play truly meaningful and impactful.
The strong suit of The Antiquities is its ensemble cast of Cindy Cheung, Andrew Garman, Kristen Sieh, Marchánt Davis, Julius Rinzel, Ryan Spahn, Layan Elwazani, Aria Shahghasemi and Amelia Workman. The rat-a-tat-tat of scene changes with fast costume switches and the assumption of new characters demands sharp, quick work, a commitment well-met by each player. Costume design by Brenda Abbandandolo enabled those speedy transformations, while spare scenic design by Paul Steinberg heightened the dystopian feel of the play. Co-directing by David Cromer and Caitlin Sullivan diluted focus, however, producing action that lacked cohesion, further weaking the potential power of the text to have a mighty punch. Inconsistent lighting and sound design by Tyler Micoleau and Christopher Darbassie also detracted from the play’s potential impact.
The Antiquities, with a run-time of 1 hour 40 minutes without intermission, runs through February 23 at Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street. Tickets begin at $52.50 and can be purchased at PlaywrightsHorizons.org
Photo credits: Emilio Madrid