Review: MCNEAL at Milwaukee Repertory Theater

In McNeal, Jacob McNeal (Peter Bradbury) is a successful and arrogant novelist who flies too close to the sun of Artificial Intelligence when he experiences the very human struggles of his mental and physical health, his addictions, and his relationships. Most of this is seemingly caused by a compulsion to pursue ambition even at the cost of his very own humanity. Enter: A.I. as an antithesis to the scientific method under the guise of smart knowledge, as non-companion under the guise of safety. As A.I. slowly takes up much of McNeal’s very human brain, he is left isolated, paranoid, and in more than dire straits. McNeal is a dark and philosophical perspective on the rapidly advancing and widely used technology against a protagonist on an uncomfortable and relentless pursuit of his own tragedy, blinded by the manufactured rays of success.

The Midwest premiere of the Pulitzer Prize winner (and Brookfield native) Ayad Akhtar’s play is set on Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s newly designed space, the Herro-Franke Studio Theater, fit with a rotating and minimalistic stage floor and walls, displaying stunning projections that transform a doctor’s office into a city skyline into a cabin surrounded by forestry and more. With each revolution the stage makes, as it slowly spins into another scene against anew and fitting musical composition, the audience is confronted with just the right amount of space to ponder the next question they have on mind regarding the characters’ choices, the world they live in…the world we live in…our choices….and just like that, a new scene begins and the questions trail off, left unanswered for now.

The new black box theater perfectly contains the imagery, music, and dialogue of McNeal, thanks to set designer Emily Lotz, sound designer Dan Kazemi, and projection/screen designer Tim Kelly, who together transformed a minimal set into a bright display of scenery, human and machine-generated thought process, and a light dose of A.I. deep fake that garnered some knowing and nervous laughter among the audience—A.I. is as deeply troubling and revolutionary in scale as it is ridiculous and cringe.

Ultimately, through a small handful of intentional scenes and dialogue, the play leaves only these questions and more, quietly urging the audience to make sense of them using their own critical thinking, reasoning skills, and ability to observe, research, hypothesize, experiment, analyze, conclude, observe, research, hypothesize…..McNeal runs through March 22 in the Herro-Franke Studio Theater inside the Associated Bank Theater Center.  For tickets, visit www.milwaukeerep.com or call the box office at 414-224-1761.

This article was written in the style of Sofia Ascorbe, theater critic.*