EDINBURGH 2025: Review: DEAD AIR, Pleasance Courtyard

Alfie is a thirty-eight-year-old woman who lost her father a few years ago and is struggling to cope. Enter Dead Air: an AI programme that will replicate the voice of your loved one and enable conversations with them.

Her relationship isn’t going well, she’s lost a pregnancy and she feels like it is too late to start over with someone new. Her partner Steve isn’t remotely supportive and all she wants is to be able to talk to her dad.

Dead Air is a subscription service where a significant chunk of cash will buy you access to a version of your loved one. But you need to keep topping up your account to do so. Heartfelt chats are also interrupted by customer service agents and glitches in the system.

It’s early days of the festival, so some nerves and fluffed lines are inevitable and Rose recovers well. There’s a lot of potential in this play but it needs a bit of fine-tuning. There’s warmth and humour in the script but it also takes too long to really get anywhere.

Get Broadway News on WhatsApp

Receive the latest updates, breaking news, and exclusive coverage from Broadway directly in WhatsApp.