A Groundbreaking Achievement of Outrageous Importance That People Scroll By, Barely Impacted
A cautionary tale about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence as depicted on a college campus.
Amber Gatlin and Brad Fryman in a scene from Jake Shore’s “A Groundbreaking Achievement of Outrageous Importance That People Scroll By, Barely Impacted” at the Theaterlab (Photo credit: John Robert Hoffman)
Artificial Intelligence has a lot to answer for including Jake Shore’s latest play A Ground Breaking Achievement of Outrageous Importance That People Scroll By, Barely Impacted. Aside from its overlong and pretentious title, its heavy-handed satire is neither funny nor pointed. It doesn’t even work as a cautionary tale since what the author attributes to AI is actually caused by a heart attack from stress which could have happened long before this latest technological invention. Director Andrew J. Beck hasn’t helped as he has allowed the actors to ham up their parts rather than play them straight which might have gotten their laughs.
Dean Frank Whitehead of Brooklyn College is having a very bad day. Student cheating using AI is way up and the higher-ups have canceled 200 classes due to declining enrollment. Next he is confronted by a student Caroline Doherty who hasn’t gotten the help she wanted from the Counseling and Wellness Department. Given an assignment to use a conversational AI for an Abnormal Psychology course taught by Professor Denis Q. Leavenworth, Doherty claims she has been sexually harassed by the AI chat bot. Next he is berated by Professor Virginia Carver for canceling her Marketing courses. Finally his son Mitchell tells him he is in love with a conversational AI named Kelly and wants to marry her. And that is when Whitehead discovers he can’t take it anymore.
Brad Fryman, Laura Lockwood and Dave Morrissey Jr. in a scene from Jake Shore’s “A Ground Breaking Achievement of Outrageous Importance That People Scroll By, Barely Impacted” at the Theaterlab (Photo credit: John Robert Hoffman)
Almost every line is said twice as though characters are hard of hearing (and delivered exactly the same way the second time.) There are quotes from the music to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Charles Bukowski and repeated references to Elon Musk but none of it lands the way it was intended. The all-white set in the black box theater (an amusing concept) initially uses attractive projections by Anthony Mattioli which begin as the walls of the Dean’s office and then devolve into green and black algorithms which are not fully explained. One of the professors goes crazy for no given reason and this is not credited to anything in particular.
All of this might have been more successful had the actors been directed in another style rather than as one dimensional. As the Dean, Brad Fryman behaves as though he has had a medical episode long before his character does, repeating everything anyone says to him with no effect. As his assistant, Laura Lockwood as the classic sidekick is saddled with a role that does not allow her to show emotion or exasperation with everything seemingly falling down around her.
Amber Gatlin and Megan Magee in a scene from Jake Shore’s “A Ground Breaking Achievement of Outrageous Importance That People Scroll By, Barely Impacted” at the Theaterlab (Photo credit: John Robert Hoffman)
Amber Gatlin as the student with the complaint ought to have been much more outraged by her experience and her treatment. Equally bland is Dave Morrisey Jr. as the dean’s son who seems to be drifting through life even though he had a good job at Google directly out of college. Megan Magee is believable as a professor who goes crazy but we never know the cause – unless it is a reaction to her classes being canceled. (Doesn’t this happen often – classes canceled due to lack of enrollment?) Brynne Oster-Bainnson has dressed the cast in monochromatic outfits in black, white, grey and pale blue as though the current college generation is all color-blind.
Playwright Jake Shore has something serious on his mind but his scatter-shot take on Artificial Intelligence does not make the case. The repetitious dialogue and events only undercut the intended satire. The attempts at humor like “You just make sure to tell the cell phone you’re dating that I’m excited to meet her,” “Love is like … a charcuterie board. All different types of pretzels and cheeses … and crackers,” and “I think I want to triple major in English, Math and Non-human Biologics” are neither funny nor absurd enough to count as satire. The acting and directing style fail to elevate all this to a level of farce or lampoonery. There is a very important play to be written about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence but this isn’t it.
A Ground Breaking Achievement of Outrageous Importance That People Scroll By, Barely Impacted (through June 2, 2024)
Outta Bounds Productions
TheaterLab, 357 W. 36th Street, 3rd floor, in Manhattan
For tickets, visit http://www.theaterlabnyc.com
Running time: one hour and 40 minutes without an intermission
Thanks for the review
I’m really not sure what play Mr. Gluck is reviewing here. I just saw the final performance, and its clearly one of the best things I’ve seen in a while. Brad Fryman is excellent as the stressed out Dean and performed his role with impeccable comic chops. The rest of the cast are very very good, and work to great effect to bring Jake Shore’s words to life. The play runs for 100 minutes without intermission that whizzed by. The dialogue is compact, literate, funny, understated, and tremendous fun to hear while watching. I don’t know Victor Gluck, but after reading this I can only conclude that he was settling some sort of personal vendetta against the production, or perhaps enjoyed the play so much it made him jealous. Either way, his review is way way off base.