Review: IBOSS at Great Barrington Public Theatre

This World Premiere Play takes place in a not-so-distant future, where the rapidly accelerating intelligence of AI systems has created "LISA." Powered by AI, she wields enormous power. Shockingly, LISA displays an emergent property of AI — sentience. And from this newly sentient being something else emerges: an emotional agenda. As Job Johnson begins his first in-person evaluation, it's clear this isn't going to be just another day at the office.

Director, Clay Hopper says, "The dramatization of an AI persona is something I have yet to see attempted onstage.  Thomas Kee's new play, iBOSS, not only does it with gusto, but also deftly weaves themes of consciousness, sentience, technology, loss, suffering, love and need into a single, tautly constructed situation we all can relate to - an HR performance evaluation".  I completely agree 

Job "Joe" Johnson is played by Doug MacKechnie, LISA by Sarah Keyes.  Both deliver laudable performances.  The Creative Team includes Scenic Design by Juliana von Haubrich, Sound Design by Gage Baker, Lighting Design by Matthew Adelson, Costume Designer George Veale, Stage Manager Valerie Bijur Carlson, Assistant Stage Manager Ariel Caine, Assistant Director / Interactive Design Operator Alessandra Harrington, Voice Recording Engineer Emily Edelman, and Dramaturgy Mentor Dr. Jo Michael Rezes.

While the production uses the talents of Sarah Keyes to represent the AI technology (LISA), it utilizes a brand-new technology called Random Actor, an interactive design tool that was co-created by director Clay Hopper. This is the first time this software has been used in a professional production of a new play. It creates visuals that are an extension of LISA The images projected in the space respond to her movement, her voice and her mood and intonations. Random Actor allows for the visual design of LISA's internal state. 

The images are not recorded or played back from a video. They are created In Real Time along with the actor's performance, with a generative algorithm using machine learning to create evocative images that are organic, despite their computational nature. No two performances of this play will be exactly the same…it is live, real-time design, based on the interaction of the actor, the text, and the designer who is responding to the performance in the very same moment that the audience is watching it. 

Playwright, Kee said, “When I locked myself in a motel room in St. Augustine and started writing this thing, I only saw the onion from the outside.  What I found when I peeled away   the skin surprised me.  I hope it surprises you.” Given the volume of news stories regarding availability and acceptance of humanoid like robotics, AI systems “breaking loose”, and technology’s increasing impact on employment statistics, this play, and its subject matter are incredibly relevant and topical.

Director Clay Hopper said, “What you will see onstage is the culmination of a collaboration with two of the smartest, and most collaborative actors I have ever worked with.  The fearlessness of their performances is matched only by what Thomas’s plays asks of us: that we look deeply inside out assumptions of what defines “self”, and gaze into the human mirror of this emerging technology so that we see ourselves.  And maybe – just maybe – see someone else looking back.”

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