A work unfinishing: Weekly Margin 2025, W3: The Antiquities, Show/Boat: A River

1/14/25: The Antiquities

What: Playwrights Horizons, in conjunction with the Vineyard Theatre and the Goodman Theatre, presents Jordan Harrison's play, a speculative view of the future of the world, where artificial intelligence has taken over and now keeps a museum to remember their dinosaur ancestors: humans.

And? There's a care and a precision here that I really appreciate. It comes through in the unity of the ensemble of performers, as directed by David Cromer and Caitlin Sullivan. It's in the tenderly curated language of playwright Jordan Harrison. It's in the small details of design by Paul Steinberg and Brenda Abbandandolo. We are placed in the moment of an unknown (to us) future, looking back at ancient times ranging from the 19th century to two years ago to two hundred years from now, when the very last humans are deciding whether or not to continue reproducing. The look-back moments are all linked through themes of life and death, the notion of monsters, the advancement of technology, and most importantly the question of creation: creating life, the responsibility that entails, and the danger of our creations to our own survival.

It makes sense, then, that we start with Mary Shelley, who, in the grief of losing her infant, concocts the tale of Doctor Frankenstein and his monster. We journey from there to the Industrial Age factory workers, to the world wide web, to robot technology, to social media, to a sentient AI, to increased human-tech modifications, to a rebel sect of humans fighting the dominant tech, to the last remaining colony of non-synthetics. And then like a boomerang, we return again to see the other side of what we lost, of what we have continued to reach for, what Mary Shelley and Doctor Frankenstein were reaching for: not just creating life, but creating immortality or at least a sentient afterlife, so that we would never have to grieve another loss, so that we ourselves will never disappear.

Of course, this isn't achievable. Not really. Every legacy gets a little lost in translation. In the world of this play, it's all a foolish ambition, and humanity built its own destruction and then marched on willingly.

I like the exploration, and I really like the themes connecting each time and place we visit, but I did also feel that the play itself is perhaps a little too neatly tied up and pat. I miss the messiness we got with Dave Malloy's Octet, which seemed a warning and a condemnation of living our lives online, but did find the grace of what we do get from the interconnectedness of our smartphones. This play feels more like a Greek tragedy, but then that's probably the point.

Kristen Sieh and Julius Rinzel. Photo by Emilio Madrid.

1/15/25: Show/Boat: A River

What: NYU Skirball and Target Margin Theater present a reconfiguration of the Hammerstein/Kern musical Show Boat.

And? Target Margin Theater's production is not so much a deconstruction as a defamiliarization. The most racially charged moments in the show are often dilated into a dialog cycle, sometimes monotone, before breaking back into more melodic speech patterns. Further defamiliarizations come in a small ensemble cast primarily with performers of color who, regardless of their ethnicity, wear a sash that says WHITE whenever playing a role that is either white or white-passing. When the sash isn't worn, the presumption of whiteness leaves.

Some of this works in interesting ways, some of it doesn't. It reminded me, actually, that every time I've seen the show it's felt like half the story got cut and I'm just seeing highlights. Weird structure of the book of the show, I guess. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this production to someone unfamiliar with the show, but for returners like me it at least has something interesting to offer, plus a stellar cast with strong voices -- especially Alvin Crawford as Joe, Stephanie Weeks as Julie, Rebbekah Vega-Romero as Magnolia, and Philiipi Themio Stoddard as Ravenal. Though I'll admit I don't understand how the new title connects to the new vision of the show, aside from cluing us that it is a new vision.

A lyric that has always stood out to me took special resonance in this production, especially as the entire cast sang it, and not just Joe: "I'm tired of living and scared of dying." That's ... that's a lot of what's going on right now.