REVIEW: The Chemistry Test by Jack Cray at Stage Door Theatre, 22 - 26 October 2024

Images: Jules Porter

 'the AI are mimicking human love rituals is where the dialogue’s real strength and humour comes into play' ★★★ 1/2

In a short time, AI has gone from the realm of science fiction to becoming our personal assistants. Yet, there are still frontiers to be explored. In The Chemistry Test, we find that one of those is using artificial intelligence to find love.

In testing chamber 17B, with its white chairs, small table, small bookcases, and blue-green lighting, we meet Evie who is immediately recognisable as an artificially intelligent bot. Evie (Hannah Adams, also director) rises to shake hands with Steve (Jack Cray, writer), who states, “Hello, I. believe we love each other.” Equally robotic is her response: “I believe that to be the case.” With crisp dialogue this play brings us to a place where we start to understand  the real test. Steve and Evie must be convincing as a romantic couple, complete with batteries on their waist harnesses,  in order to go to Earth and help people with their relationships. Adams and Cray beautifully convince us of their 'artificiality' while balancing a lovely charm.

When it is not as easy as Evie and Steve hope to convince the judges of their love, they experience frustration (a strong emotion for an AI) and things start to spiral out of control. It is in the early scenes of the two beings trying to demonstrate what love looks like that the real humour rests. For example, they describe their interests as if for an online profile (such as fencing, foraging or bingewatching Bridgerton), and they explore ways that they might have met, deciding ultimately on a ‘meet cute’ that involved Steve spilling a hot drink on Evie as they queued at a coffee shop. There are catchy lines like, “Do you believe in an after build?”, to which the response was “I believe in recycling”. There are other deep thoughts that arise, such as “death is only for the living” while the couple watched Titanic. There is existential thought instilled into this piece, at moments.

Audience participation adds an element of improv that really works. At least it did the night I was there.  In fact, the aforementioned queue had a couple of members picked up from the crowd and they added their own element of comedy to the scene, even if inadvertently. People played roles at several points, with the gentle warmth of our hosts. In one moment, Steve asked a gentlemen, “You, do something romantic”, to which the man replied, “To whom?”. Steve points to himself, playing along. And the man dismisses him with a quick “not today”. The use of free bodies culminated with a scene in which a pair join Evie and Steve for dinner and share stories of how they met, and what they do for a living. The improv pair really played along!

Our AI beings made good use of the new theatre space, zipping past the dining tables to get to the bar for the party scene and raising chairs to create a barricade from what might come from the side entrance doors at the end. In fact, it is the frantic ending with its odd twist that leaves the viewer slightly deflated and even confused. In the scenes where the AI are mimicking human love rituals is where the dialogue’s real strength and humour comes into play; after the third fail in trying to achieve their goal, it almost felt like the piece didn’t know where to go from there, instead creating a small battle scene and a faux Shakespearian-style monologue. You could be forgiven for wondering if the ending was perhaps written by AI. It certainly was not, but perhaps some of the natural intelligence fell short of solid ideas when the chemistry was lost.

Written by Jack Cray

Performed by Jack Cray, Hannah Adams

Voiceovers performed by Kevin McNally, Karell Vertet, Denise Wilton, and Emilio Encinoso-Gil

Directed by Hannah Adams