REVIEW: PROTOTYPE Camden Fringe at Old Red Lion Theatre 13 – 16 August & The Museum of Comedy 18th August 2024

‘filled the room with contagious laughter from start to finish’ ★★★★ ½

If you are a fan of political farce, clown comedy and / or are as terrified of AI as the rest of us, then ‘Prototype’ is a must see. Writer and performer Steph Darcey’s debut comedy show filled the room with contagious laughter from start to finish as ‘Amexa,’ the world’s first AI politician, travelled from her US lab to British parliament with synthetic charm and technocratic absurdity. The Old Red Lion Theatre served as the launch stage for company Boogle’s latest invention in an hilarious deconstruction of the robotic nature of political personalities and the UK government.

Darcey’s performance as Amexa – a robot programmed specifically for the United Kingdom, who is ‘slick, relatable and charismatic with democracy infiltrating capacities’ – is playful and ridiculous; I laughed so hard at her glitching ‘hear hears’ in a scene at the house of commons that I could barely see. Constructing the play’s narrative through a series of sketches, Darcey embodies this bizarre character with impressive robotic physicality and delivers the charm and pre-programmed humour that the British public have been subject to at the intersection of Theresa May, Liz Truss and Nicola Murray (The Thick of It). When her American creators deem her ready, Amexa is sent to infiltrate the British ‘Perform’ party and she ousts a ‘Preservative’ party MP after a quick whistle blow on his criminal activity. Her rise to political power is punctuated with tutorials from her user manual, where we see her enter a variety of modes (empathy, relatable, endearing dancing) and even access a feature that smacks away proximate milkshakes, should there be any. Despite multiple system failures, Amexa is still elected secretary of state for culture, media and sport after a 7-week stint on Strictly Come Dancing.

Political comedy is a saturated genre, wherein shows like Dead Ringers and Spitting Image have set the bar, but ‘Prototype’ is an original and deeply layered satire which I thoroughly enjoyed. While there are perhaps a few too many moments of updating, buffering and system overdrive that obscure the narrative, the show’s structure is maintained by a curious metatheatrical framing device: an AI narrator that interacts with the characters, which left me suitably unsettled as a creative and questioning the relationship between the arts and artificial intelligence. Amexa serves as a comedic blueprint of the mechanical politicians that carry our social, economic and cultural demands on their shoulders, made all the more topical by the recent media return of the Liz Truss lettuce.

There is so much in this show to delight fans of political satire and I for one look forward to seeing what Amexa is programmed to do next.

Photography: Ali Wright

Prototype by Steph Darcey

The Old Red Lion Theatre | 13 – 16^th August 2024

The Museum of Comedy | 18^th August 2024

Box office: https://camdenfringe.com/events/prototype/

Instagram: @theamexalab

Written and performed by Steph Darcey

Directed by Olivia Gibbs-Fairley

Tech operated by Cameron Pike

Reviewer Bio

Imo Redpath is a writer and actor for theatre, radio and TV. She graduated with an MFA in Scriptwriting from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and her plays ‘Foxes & Rabbits’ and ‘Pigs’ are currently in development. She writes a comedy blog on Substack about living with ADHD in London.