By LOU HARRY, Special to Theatrecriticism.com
It’s made clear from the first moments of “The Antiquities” that the human race is history.
Jordan Harrison’s play, a co-production of Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard Theatre and Goodman Theatre, opens with a pair of humanoid “inorganic” hosts introducing us to a museum that gives long lost humanity the treatment that our natural history museum gives to dinosaurs.
A series of exhibits, identified by year, then offers glimpses into human history with a focus on our species’ efforts to better our lives through technology while, in the process, inadvertently taking us on a path to our own destruction.
The brief scenes themselves are often compelling, sometimes fun, and always strikingly acted and designed, whether they focus on the development of a robot that can, wow!, sense and avoid obstacles in 1978, a grandfather getting a lesson in internet usage in 2008 or a plan to exile humanity by now-dominant AI in 2076.
This isn’t a world where humans have a chance against this thing we created and Harrison’s play isn’t interested in offering the slightest bit of hope. We made our AI grave, now we have to lie in it.
At around the midway point, the scene works goes on pause and the stage is turned over to a display of artifacts that we’ve seen earlier – “These artifacts represent what we believe are some of the proudest achievements of the Late Human era,” we are told. Then scenes take us backwards through the time periods of the first half, now filling in blanks with additional information but not additional insight.
Directors David Cromer and Caitlin Sullivan make wonderful use of the material, but it’s ultimately the material that keeps “The Antiquities” from transcending. Any good science fiction writer knows the importance of solid world building. You can introduce just about any technology or other futuristic conceit, but if you don’t play by the rules you define – if you create inconsistencies – suspension of disbelief and, in turn, full engagement is less likely.
As we stare at the artifacts, a voiceover states “Gazing upon these mute objects, we try to imagine the life that took place in between.” So are we to believe that the scenes we’ve watched are AI’s attempt to piece together our history? Each of those scenes is described as an exhibit, but the very detailed, very human scenes (including sexual moments) we have seen – and will see – clearly aren’t the work of a distant AI civilization making guesses from the artifact clues. And if AI has accumulated all of our collected knowledge, why would these future inorganics have to guess at all. Hell, they could just google – or google-equivalent – and find out what the uses were of these objects.
Making up for much of the narrative illogic, though, is the transformative use of the Playwrights Horizons stage by scenic designer Paul Steinberg and lighting designer Tyler Micoleau, abetted by Christopher Darbassie’s haunting sound design. While there may not be hope for humanity, there’s clear evidence here of theatrical talent beyond (for now) the reach of AI.
The Antiquities by Jordan Harrison (100 minutes with no intermission) has been extended and continues off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, 416 W. 42nd St. in New York City, through March 2. For tickets click here or call 212-464-1235. For more information, email info@phync.org
