Andrew Keenan-Bolger (left) plays Kevin, a playwright with writer’s block, and Brittany Bellizeare plays Liza, his sister-in-law and a cocreator of a high-tech, virtual-reality headset in S. Asher Gelman’s Scarlett Dreams.
In addition to introducing the word robot to the English language, Czech writer Karel Čapek’s 1920 sci-fi drama R.U.R. depicted a dystopian world in which scientifically manufactured laborers gradually eradicate humans. The play perfectly captured the anxieties of the burgeoning Machine Age and was a big hit on Broadway in 1922. S. Asher Gelman’s Scarlett Dreams attempts to tap into similar uneasiness as the former Information Age settles into the current Age of Intelligence. With the meteoric advancement and sudden ubiquity of artificial intelligence (AI), the play suggests that it may be just a matter of time when people will be controlled by digital avatars, and the difference between reality and virtual reality (VR) will become purely conjectural.
Scarlett (Caroline Lellouche) is a virtual fitness coach and a life-altering presence in Kevin’s reality.
Drawing on elements of stage thrillers, Gelman slyly sets the stakes very low. Siblings Liza (Brittany Bellizeare) and Milo (Borris Anthony York) are high-level app developers and have helped create a prototype for a new type of VR headset that is both streamlined and modern. Their sleek, cutting-edge glasses—in addition to a sensory finger ring—are part of a fitness application called RealFit, which will conceivably revolutionize exercise regimens and health maintenance. All Liza and Milo need is a human beta tester before they can officially launch the product. What could go wrong?
Kevin (Andrew Keenan-Bolger) is Milo’s husband and a playwright, but he hasn’t written anything since his successful Off-Broadway debut some time ago. Instead, he lounges around the apartment all day, and his physical and mental health are gradually deteriorating. As Liza succinctly describes his noticeable paunchiness, “He’s on the highway to dad bod. This is his last exit.” He is the perfect candidate to test the app.
As Kevin, Keenan-Bolger transforms from paunchy schlub to shredded superjock with the help of RealFit, a sophisticated computer application. Photographs by Jeremy Daniel.
First, Kevin must choose a VR coach, and he selects the exacting but encouraging Scarlett (Caroline Lellouche), who immediately puts him through his paces in a multisensory and constantly changing digital landscape. (Brian Pacelli designed the sensational projections that work effectively on Christopher and Justin Swader’s minimalist and mostly white apartment set. Jamie Roderick’s lighting and Alex Makyol’s sound design heighten the VR effects.)
Over the next several months, Kevin trains obsessively, and he transforms from a half-baked couch potato to a hot and beefy muscle god. (The cunningly layered costumes designed by Emily Rebholz make the miraculous metamorphosis possible.)
Kevin’s marital relationship, however, comes under a severe strain after he finds out that Scarlett is not an actual person, but a product of AI. He had befriended her on social media and even mourned the death of a cat with her. Therefore, he considers it an act of betrayal that Milo knew all along that Scarlett and her elaborate backstory were completely computer-generated and no one had told him. When Kevin faces a nearly catastrophic medical issue, though, he realizes that he cannot live without Scarlett as his personal mentor and guide, and he goes back to Milo.
Borris Anthony York plays AI app developer Milo, Kevin’s husband.
In the second half of the play, Gelman explores the seductive qualities as well as the potential insidiousness of AI. Milo, for instance, is like a remorseful Dr. Frankenstein and worries about how his creation might spell doom for humanity. He explains: “You know why everyone’s so afraid of AI? Because we’re afraid that it might be better at being us than we are.” But unlike the best suspense dramas, the tension does not continuously build. Rather than digging deeply into the characters’ fraying relationship and highlighting the insidiousness of a global AI takeover (reminiscent of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers), Scarlett Dreams remains an intellectual rather than a visceral experience. As a result, the play’s ending, which will not be revealed here, does not provide a huge payoff and did not produce the requisite gasps at the performance I attended.
Directed by Gelman, the performances are all very good. As Kevin, Keenan-Bolger is completely winning and utterly convincing as he falls more and more under the thrall of Scarlett. York does fine work with Milo, the least fully drawn of the four characters, and Bellizeare effectively shows the ethical conundrums Liza faces while providing emotional grounding to the play. As Scarlett, Lellouche, who is the founder and managing director of a body-neutral fitness studio in real-life, is a bundle of energy and seems plucked from a sports magazine or downloaded from a health-and-wellness app.
As a play, Scarlett Dreams ultimately disappoints, but the quality of the acting offers a potent reminder that even as AI threatens to overtake the arts and literature, nothing can replace the immediacy of live performance.
Scarlett Dreams runs through May 26 at the Greenwich House Theater (27 Barrow St.). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Monday and Wednesday through Friday and at 8 p.m. Saturday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For tickets, visit Theatertickets.my.Salesforce.
