Marjorie Prime
Anne Reid stars in this chilling vision of the future - now showing at The Menier Chocolate Factory.
If you had the choice to keep an artificial version of a loved one, would you?
Anne Reid stars in this chilling vision of the future - now showing at The Menier Chocolate Factory.
Anne Reid stars in this chilling vision of the future - now showing at The Menier Chocolate Factory.
The Meiner Chocolate Factory re-opens its doors with Jordan Harrison's Pulitzer Prize-shortlisted vision of the future of AI, starring Anne Reid, Nancy Carroll, Richard Fleeshman, and Tony Jaywardana. Billed as a futuristic chilling introspection into the human psyche, head to the distant future where technology has been developed to help us stave off grief - offering a replication of a lost loved one made up of pixels and stored memories. As one elderly woman recounts her life to her new AI companion, Marjory Prime asks us to envision a world where memory loss doesn't happen and days gone by are always accessible - and just what that power can do to an individual.
What is the story?
The play opens with Marjorie, an aging woman, talking to a young man called Walter, whom we soon realize is a "Prime" - a computerized replica of her late husband in his early 30s. They talk about their courtship and even though he tells her "I sound like whoever I talk to" the interaction psychologically transports back to a happier time.
Marjorie lives with her daughter and her daughter's husband who have problems their own. But, one day when Marjorie walks onto the stage far happier than we've ever seen her, we realize that Marjorie has become a prime to comfort her daughter. Will it dawn on any of them that being reminded of the past is lonelier than sharing it?
Anne Reid
Nancy Carroll
Richard Fleeshman
Tony Jayawardena
Written by Jordan Harrison
Directed by Dominic Dromgoole
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